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LIBRARY 


1  r>  r  jiTy-i  El  ?n/-i  »T     XT     T 


BS  511  .M4  1861 

Meade,  William,  1789-1862. 

The  Bible  and  the  classics 


'rhe  John   1(1.   Krcbs  I>oiiatioit. 


THE    BIBLE 


THE    CLASSICS. 


BY    THE 


EIGHT  REVEREND  WILLIAM  MEADE, 

BISHOP  OF  THE  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 
OF  VIRGINIA. 


"  Study  the  Sacred  Scriptures  :  they  have  God  for  their  Author,  salvation  for  their  end, 
and  truth  witliout  any  mixture  of  error  for  their  matter." — John  Locke. 


NEW   YORK: 
ROBERT    CARTER    &    BROTHERS. 

No.   5  30  BROADWAY. 
186L 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1861, 

BY   THE   RT.    REV.    WILLIAM   MEADE, 

In  the  Clerk's  OfBce  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern  Dis- 
trict of  New  York. 


NEW  YORK: 

PRINTED    BT   EDWARD    O.    JENKINS, 
20   NORTH  WILLIAM   ST. 


PREFACE. 


When  a  youth  at  school,  studying  the  Grreek  and  Latin 
poets,  I  was,  as  doubtless  other  youths  are,  much  struck 
with  the  accounts  there  given  of  the  heathen  gods  and  god- 
desses; of  their  visits  to  the  earth  and  intercourse  with 
mortals  ;  of  the  miracles  ascribed  to  them  ;  and  especially 
of  their  frequent  assumption  of  the  human  form.  The 
teacher  made  me  understand  all  the  allusions  to  these 
things  by  referring  to  the  notes,  and  by  carefully  studying 
Tooke's  "  Pantheon,"  in  which  were  many  very  shocking 
things  which  it  could  be  wished  were  kept  from  the  eyes 
of  the  young.  Having  been  instructed  in  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures from  a  child,  and  continually  hearing  or  reading  the 
same,  at  home  or  in  church,  I  could  not  but  observe  the 
strong  resemblance  between  some  of  these  fables  in  the 
ancient  poets,  and  certain  things  in  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments,— such  as  the  first  formation  of  man  ;  the  garden  of 
Eden ;  God's  visits  to  that  place ;  the  long  lives  of  men 
before  the  flood ;  the  flood  itself;  the  mission  of  angels 
to  men   afterwards ;    and,   above   all,  the   incarnation    of 


4  PREFACE. 

Christ,    and   the  miracles   wrouglit   by   himself    and   his 
apostles. 

While  noticing  this  resemblance,  I  well  remember  that 
unbelieving  thoughts  would  sometimes  enter  my  mind,  in 
opposition  to  the  faith  in  which  I  had  been  trained,  and 
that  I  was  tempted  to  say,  perhaps  all  these  marvellous 
things  in  the  Bible  and  in  the  heathen  mythology  are 
alike  false.  To  the  blessing  of  God  on  a  religious  educa- 
tion I  owe  it,  that  this  temptation  was  not  more  effectual, 
and  that  the  impression  was  Jiot  an  abiding  one,  as  I  fear 
has  been  the  case  with  thousands  of  the  young  who  have 
not  enjoyed  the  same  religious  advantages,  and  even  with 
some  who  have  been  instructed  in  the  scriptures  of  truth. 

When  it  pleased  God  more  deeply  to  affect  my  heart 
with  the  truth  and  importance  of  our  holy  religion,  and  I 
saw  how  many  of  the  classically  educated  youth  of  our 
land  were  disposed  to  regard  alike  the  most  sacred  truths 
of  the  Bible  and  the  wild  fables  of  pagan  writers,  and 
how  much  impurity  was  learnt  from  the  latter,  I  began  to 
dread  the  effects  of  a  classical  education,  and  to  think  that 
more  harm  than  good  resulted  therefrom.  But  on  continu- 
ing and  enlarging  my  course  of  reading  with  a  view  to 
the  ministry,  and  carefully  examining  the  Sacred  Scriptures, 
and  the  heathen  poets  and  mythologists,  my  mind  was 
relieved  of  this  apprehension,  and  I  became  satisfied  that  a 
candid  study  and  comparison  of  the  same  with  the  Bible 
would  produce  quite  a  different  result.  All  my  subsequent 
examinations  of  this  subject  have  only  confirmed  me  in 


PREFACE.  5 

the  conviction,  that  one  of  the  strongest  arguments  in  flivor 
of  all  that  seems  marvellous  in  the  Bible  may  be  drawn 
from  the  remarkable  resemblance  between  the  marvellous 
in  it  and  the  marvellous  in  the  religious  history  and  sys- 
tems of  the  ancient  heathen  world  ;  much  of  which  is  to 
be  seen,  even  at  the  present  day,  in  the  idolatries  of  the 
yet  unchristianized  world. 

There  is  no  sentiment  more  generally  admitted,  than 
that  "  the  universal  consent  of  mankind  points  to  truth," 
if  not  with  an  unerring  hand  in  every  particular,  yet  with 
sufficient  clearness  to  establish  all  great  truths."-  If,  not- 
withstanding great  perversions  and  corruptions,  the  various 
religions  of  earth  point  to  some  early  facts  common  to 
them  all,  we  have  only  to  examine  diligently  where  the 
first  and  true  account  is  to  be  found,  and  then  show  the 
origin  and  history  of  all  departures  from  the  same.  But 
this  can  only  be  done  by  those  wlio  have  the  learning  and 
the  leisure  for  it. 

The  youth  in  our  schools,  with  only  the  heathen  poets 
and  the  notes  on  the  same,  and  some  classical  dictionary, 
are  utterly  incompetent  to  judge  rightly  on  this  subject. 
Their  minds  will  only  be  overwhelmed  by  the  multitude 
of  contradictory  and  ridiculous  stories  about  the  gods,  and 
either  disgust,  contempt,  or  scepticism,  as  to  all  among  men 
claiming  to  be  divine,  will  be  the  result.  Who  can  ques- 
tion the  importance  of  some  work  which  shall  bring  within 
a  moderate  compass  a  comparative  view  of  the   leading 

*  "  Quod  ab  omnibus,  ubique  et  semper  creditum  est  pro  veritute  habendum." 


6  PREFACE. 

principles  and  facts  of  the  Bible,  and  of  all  tlie  Mse  relig- 
ions of  earth,  showing  that  they  had  the  same  origin,  but 
how,  under  the  latter,  men  gradually  "  turned  the  truth  of 
God  into  a  lie,"  and  came  "  to  worship  the  creature  more 
than  the  Creator,"  and  at  length  were  given  up  by  God  to 
all  the  abominations  which  abound  in  the  heathen  world. 

The  present  volume  is  an  humble  attempt  at  such  a 
work  ;  and  if  the  author  of  it  shall  only  succeed  in  provok- 
ing some  one,  more  competent  to  the  task,  to  execute  it  in 
a  better  manner,  he  will  rejoice  in  the  honor  and  privilege 
of  having  contributed  thus  much  to  what  he  has  long  con- 
sidered as  a  most  important  desideratum  in  the  conduct  of  a 
classical  education.  It  is  now  more  than  forty  years  since 
he  has  been  engaged  in  the  fruitless  effort  to  persuade  some 
one,  either  in  this  or  our  mother  country,  to  undertake  what 
he  felt  himself  incompetent  to  execute  in  a  manner  at  all 
worthy  of  its  great  importance.  During  that  tinie  he  has 
adverted  to  it  through  the  press,  and  spoken  and  written 
to  learned  and  pious  men  urging  the  subject  upon  their 
attention,  but  in  vain.  He  has  long  endeavored  to  find 
out  some  work  already  in  use,  in  the  schools  of  England 
and  America,  which  had  been  prepared  for  this  purpose, 
but  without  success.  When  in  England,  twenty  years 
since,  he  made  a  special  visit  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Faber, 
who  has  written  so  learnedly  and  voluminously  on  the 
subject,  with  a  view  to  persuade  him  to  condense  into  a 
small  volume,  for  the  use  of  schools,  the  substance  of  what 
he  had  published  to  the  world ;  but  the  years  and  increas- 


PREFACE.  7 

ing   infirmities  of  that  venerable  man   and   most  useful 
author,  forbade  the  attempt. 

Within  the  last  few  years,  another  fruitless  effort  has 
been  made,  by  the  help  of  two  of  the  first  scholars  and 
most  laborious  authors  in  England,  to  find  some  book, 
already  published  and  in  use,  which  might  answer  the 
object  which  I  have  so  long  endeavored  to  accomplish. 
Thus  disappointed  in  all  my  efforts  at  help  from  others, 
and  feeling  that  old  age  and  infirmities  might  soon  unfit 
me  even  for  the  attempt  at  something  which  I  have  so 
long  deemed  important,  I  hope  that  my  presumption  may 
not  seem  greater  than  my  zeal  if  I  make  an  humble  ex- 
periment myself.  It  will  at  once  be  perceived  that  I  am 
only  using  the  labors  of  others  in  compiling  a  guide  for 
the  young  who  are  travelling  the  dangerous  road  of  a  classi- 
cal education.  Nor  have  I  had  in  view  the  young  of  one 
sex  only.  The  greater  attention  now  paid  to  the  education 
of  the  female  sex,  even  to  the  extent  of  embracing,  in 
many  instances,  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics, — especially 
the  latter, — makes  it  proper  to  have  reference  to  them  in 
any  work  of  this  kind. 

I  have  considered  this,  and  in  the  execution  of  my  task 
have  endeavored  to  exclude  every  thing  which  might  in 
the  slightest  degree  offend  against  female  purity  and  deli- 
cacy, though  in  so  doing  some  things  must  be  more  lightly 
touched  than  the  subject  seems  to  require.*    It  will  be  seen 

*  Luther  was  at  one  time  charged  with  opposition  to  the  study  of  the  classics, 
but  indignantly  repelled  the  imputation.     Julian  the  Apostate  proposed  to  ban- 


8  PEEFACE. 

that  I  have  generally  abstained  even  from  the  use  of  Latin 
quotations,  and  altogether  from  the  Greek,  preferring  the 
English  to  either.  In  doing  this  I  had  reference  to  a  class 
of  readers  who  are  unacquainted  v.'ith  those  languages, 
but  to  whom  I  desire  to  render  my  book  interesting  and 
instructive.  For  the  disuse  of  the  Greek  I  ought  to 
assign  another  reason,  nor  be  ashamed  to  do  it,  when  I 
have  so  high  an  example  as  the  great  and  good  Sir  Mat- 
thew Hale.  In  the  preface  to  his  excellent  work  "  On  the 
Primitive  Origination  of  Mankind,"  he  apologizes  to  the 
reader  for  not  using  the  Greek  tongue  in  his  quotations 
from  ancient  Greek  authors,  saying,  "  I  was  a  better  Gre- 
cian in  the  sixteenth  than  in  the  sixty-sixth  year  of  m.y 
life."  I  can  speak  in  like  manner,  only  that  I  may  say 
"  I  was  a  better  Grecian  in  my  sixteenth  year  at  school, 
than  in  my  seventj^-second  in  the  study."  But  my  book 
will  suit  more  readers  in  consequence  of  my  having  nearly 
forgotten  something  which  I  once  learned.  Indeed,  it  is 
not  for  the  learned  antiquarian  and  scholar  that  I  write,  but 
for  those  of  either  sex.  and  of  all  ages,  whether  studying 

ish  the  works  of  the  poets  and  m3-thologists  from  his  kingdom,  saying  that  the 
defenders  of  Christianity  drew  many  of  their  arguments  from  the  pagan  writers, 
adducing  their  traditions  in  support  of  Bible  facts  and  doctrines.  Some  are, 
even  at  this  day,  unwilling  to  expurgate  any  of  the  classics,  lest  anything  should 
be  lost  which  might  furnish  proof  of  the  superior  excellency  of  the  morality  of 
the  Bible.  They  would  even  retain  the  most  obscene  and  licentious  passages  in 
the  poets,  as  proofs  of  the  deep  corruptions  of  the  heathen  world,  and  the 
greater  purity  of  our  system.  That  such  testimonies  should  be  preserved  and 
used  is  very  proper,  and  will  doubtless  be  done,  but  whether  the  youth  of 
either  sex  should  be  thus  familiarized  M'ith  vice  in  connection  with  the  charms 
of  poetry,  is  quite  a  different  question. 


PREFACE.  9 

the  classics,  or  desiring  to  be  informed  of  some  things 
which  are  common  to  them  and  to  the  Holj  Scriptures.  I 
may,  therefore,  in  sending  forth  this  work,  speak  somewhat 
in  the  words  of  the  exiled  Ovid,  in  his  "Liber  Tristium," 
or,  "  Book  of  Sad  Letters  from  Pontus  :" 


"  Ergo,  care  liber  tiniida  circumspice  mente, 
Et  satis  a  media  sit  tibi  plebe  legi." 

"  Wherefore,  dear  book,  around  thee  look  with  timid  mind, 
And  be  content  if  read  by  those  of  lesser  kind." 

In  the  hope  that  this  humble  effort  may  either  be  itself 
useful,  or  lead  to  something  which  may  be  so,  I  commend 
it  to  the  blessing  of  God  and  the  kindness  and  candor  of 
the  reader. 

I  invite  friendly  suggestions  for  its  improvement,  should 
it  appear  likely  to  answer,  in  any  measure,  the  object  of 
the  author.  To  one  and  all  I  would  say,  as  to  any  and 
every  thing  contained  in  it, 

"  Si  quid  novisti  rectius 
Candidas  imperii — si  non  ;  his  utere  mecum." 

"  If  aught  thou  better  knowest,  in  candor  tell; 
If  not,  use  this  with  me." 

One  word  only  in  conclusion.  The  most  pleasing  thought 
associated  in  my  mind  with  the  following  pages,  (on  which 
I  have  bestowed  much  labor,  not  to  make  them  appear 
learned,  but  be  useful,)  is,  that  they  may  furnish  interesting 
and  edifying  reading  to  the  family  circle  on  a  winter's 


10  PKEFACE. 

evening ;  that  they  may  also  be  taken  up  in  private,  and 
read  by  those  of  either  sex  and  of  all  ages,  who  are  anx- 
ious for  information,  presented  in  fewest  words,  and  in  the 
plainest  manner,  on  those  important  questions  touching 
God,  as  exhibited  in  the  holy  Trinity — the  creation  of  the 
world  and  of  man — the  deluge — the  unity  of  the  human 
race — the  rise  and  progress  of  idolatry — and  others  con- 
nected with  these,  which  are  now  the  subjects  of  so  much 
discussion  among  the  learned,  and  which  sceptics  and  infi- 
dels seek  to  use  against  our  blessed  religion,  as  set  forth  in 
the  Sacred  Scriptures. 

Such  being  my  object,  I  commend  this  humble  effort  to 
the  divine  blessing.'^'' 

WILLIAM  MEADE, 
Bishop  of  the  P.  E.  C,  of  Virginia. 

*  Whether  it  might  not  be  profitably  used  in  classic  schools,  and  especially 
in  those  of  a  higher  grade,  and  be  of  some  service  to  the  young,  even  in  col- 
leges, until  something  better  of  the  same  kind  is  furnished,  must  be  left  to  the 
decision  of  those  best  qualified  to  judge. 


LIST  OF  AUTHORS  REFERRED  TO. 


I  will  not  disguise  the  fact  that  in  compiling  this  book  I  have  often 
had  in  my  view  a  large  portion  of  my  brethren  in  the  ministry,  who 
ought  to  be  well-grounded  in  tlie  subjects  discussed  in  it,  but  who 
cannot  be  supposed  to  have  access  to  many  of  the  books  which  treat 
of  them.  For  their  benefit,  and  in  order  to  inspire  some  confidence 
in  the  accuracy  of  my  statements,  I  subjoin  a  list  of  the  authors  which 
I  have  consulted  during  the  preparation  of  this  book.  I  have  not 
generally  referred  to  the  page  and  volume  of  the  passages  quoted, 
because  these  refer  to  other  more  ancient  writers  to  whom  neither  1 
nor  my  readers  have  access. 

The  following  is  the  list  of  authors  recommended  to  my  brethren, 
as  they  may  have  opportunity  or  inclination  to  examine  them : 

George  Stanley  Faber's  works  on  the  Pagan  Mythology,  3  vols,  quarto ; 
Hosa  Mosaicpe,  2  vols,  octavo  ;  Mysteries  of  the  Cabiri,  2  vols,  octavo ; 
On  Sacrifice,  1  vol.  octavo ;  On  tlie  Three  Dispensations,  2  vols,  octa- 
vo ;  Bryant's  work  on  Mythology,  6  vols,  octavo ;  Mayo,  4  vols,  octa- 
vo; 1st  and  2d  volumes  of  Stackhouse's  History  of  the  Bible; 
Prideaux's  and  Shuckford's  Connections,  in  several  volumes,  octavo ; 
Prichard's  Researches,  6  vols,  octavo ;  Harcourt  on  the  Deluge,  2 
vols,  octavo;  Asiatic  Researches,  12  vols,  octavo;  Stillingfleet's  Ori- 
gines  Sacrro,  1  vol.  folio  ;  Sir  Matthew  Hale's  Primitive  Origination 
of  Mankind,  1  vol.  folio  ;  Warburton's  Divine  Legation  of  Moses,  4 
vols. ;  Cudvvorth's  Intellectual  System,  one  large  volume  ;  Leland  on 
the  Advantages  of  Revelation,  2  vols,  octavo ;  Schoolcraft's  Ameri- 
can Aborigines,  6  vols,  folio,  published  by  Congress ;  Maury's  Phys- 
ical Geography  of  the  Sea,  1  vol.  octavo ;  Guyot's  Earth  and  Man ; 
Cabell  on  the  Unity  of  the  Human  Race,  1  vol. :   Hardwic's  Christ 


12  LIST   OF   AUTHOES   REFERRED   TO. 

and  other  Masters,  4  vols,  octavo ;  Muir's  Christianity  and  Hindoo- 
ism,  1  vol.  octavo ;  Cardinal  Wiseman's  Science  and  Eevelation,  2 
vols,  duodecimo ;  Archer  Butler's  Lectures  on  Ancient  Philosophy  ; 
Prescott's  Histories  of  Mexico  and  Peru ;  Eivero  and  Pthudi  on 
Peru,  edited  by  Dr.  Hawkes ;  Lares  and  Penates,  by  Barker,  1  vol. 
octavo ;  Egypt,  by  Wilkinson,  1  vol.  duodecimo ;  Bishop  Horseley's 
Treatise  on  the  Sibylline  Books ;  Grey's  Key  to  the  Classics,  2  vols, 
octavo ;  Brook's  Ovid,  with  notes ;  Sandys'  Ovid,  with  notes,  1  vol. 
folio;  Fairbanks'  Typology,  2  vols,  octavo;  Eawlinson's  Herodotus, 
4  vols,  octavo ;  Eawlinson's  Historical  Evidences,  1  vol.  duodecimo ; 
Trench's  Hulsean  Lectures,  1  vol.  duodecimo ;  Faber's  Many  Man- 
sions, 1  vol.  octavo ;  Leland's  Deistical  Writers,  2  vols,  octavo ;  Pro- 
fessor Lewis'  Divine  Human,  1  vol. ;  His  Six  Days  of  Creation ; 
His  Bible  and  Science ;  Guyot's  Earth  and  Man ;  Labagh's  Glory  of 
Woman ;  Turnbull's  Christ  in  History ;  Hitchcock's  Eeligion  of 
Geology,  1  vol.  duodecimo ;  Hugh  Miller's  Works ;  Pendleton's 
Science  a  Witness  to  the  Bible  ;  Muller  on  Eumenides ;  The  Stars 
and  the  Angels,  anonymous ;  The  True  Glory  of  Woman,  by  Har- 
baugh,  1  vol.  duodecimo.  Beside  these,  many  articles  in  different 
Quarterlies  of  our  country. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

CHANNELS    THEOUGH    WHICH    THE    EAELY    HISTOET    OF    MAN    HAS    COME 

DOWN, 

CHAPTER  IL 

ON    GOD,    THE    SELF-EXISTENT    CEEATOR    OF    THE    WORLD,     AND    OF     ALL 
THINGS  THEREIN. 

CHAPTER    III. 

ON  CREATION. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

ON  THE  CREATION  OF  MAN. — PART  I. 

CHAPTER  V. 

ON  THE  OEEATION  OF  MAN. — PART  II. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

ON  THE  INTIMATIONS  OF  THE  TRINITY  AT  THE  FORMATION  OF  MAN. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

ON  THE  TEMPTATION  BY  THE  DEVIL  IN  THE  FORM  OF  A  SERPENT. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    GARDEN    OF   EDEN. 


14  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

ON  THE    IMMORTALITY    OF    THE    SOUL    AND    THE    EESUKRECTION    OF    THE 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE    DEATH    OF    ABEL    AND    THE    INSTITUTION    OF     SACRIFICES. 

CHAPTER  XL 

THE  CHERUBIM  OF  THE  GARDEN  OF  EDEN. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

PROGRESS   OF   CORRUPTION. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

ON    THE    RISE    AND    PROGRESS    OF    IDOLATRY. 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

ON    THE    DELUGE. 

CHAPTER   XV. 

ON    THE    DELUGE. 

CHAPTER    XVI. 

ON    THE    DELUGE. 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE   DISPERSION   FROM  BABEL,  AND  THE   DIVISION  OF  THE  EARTH   AMONG 
THE   DESCENDANTS   OF    NOAH. 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

RELIGIOUS   OPINIONS   AND   WORSHIP   OF   THE   DISPERSED   IN   ASIA, 

'      CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    DISPERSED    IN    EUROPE. 


CONTENTS.  16 

CHAPTER  XX. 

THE   RELIGION   OF   THE   DISPERSED   IN   AFRICA. 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

ON   THE   CANAANITE8   AND   ANIMAL   SACRIFICES. 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

ON  THE  RELIGIONS   OF   AMERICA. 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

ON   THE   RELIGION   OF   MEXICO   AND   PERU. 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

ON   THE   PAGAN   MYSTERIES. 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

ON   THE   PHILOSOPHERS    OF   GREECE   AND   ROME. 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

ON   PLUTARCH   AND   OTHER   PHILOSOPHERS. 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

EFFECT   OF   THE   PHILOSOPHY   AND   IDOLATRY   OF   THE   HEATHEN   ON   THE 
MORALS    OF    THE    ANCIENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

ON    HOMER — THE    ILIAD,  ODYSSEY,   AND  OTHER   POEMS. 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

ON    HESIOD    AND   CALLIMAOHUS. 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

ON    THE    THEOLOGY    OF   ^SCHYLUS   AND    SOPHOCLES. 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

ON   OVId's    TRISTIUM  and    METAMORPHOSES. 


16  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 
ON  ovid's  metamorphoses. 

CHAPTER  XXXIII. 
ON  Virgil's  georgics  and  ^neid, 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

ON  HORACE,   JUVENAL,  AND  PERSIU3. 

CHAPTER  XXXV. 

ON   THE    PROPER    ESTIMATE   OF    THE    PAGAN    MYTHOLOGY,    AND   ON    THE 
SALVABILITY    OF   THE   HEATHEN. 

CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

ON    THE   QUESTION    WHETHER    THE    SAVAGE    OR    THE    CIVILIZED     STATE 
IS    THE    ORIGINAL    AND   NATURAL   STATE    OF    MAN. 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

ON    THE    UNITY   OF   THE   HUMAN    RACE. 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

ON    THE     HEATHEN    ORACLES. 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

ON   THE  SUPERIORITY   OF   THE    BIBLE   TO   ALL    OTHER    BOOKS. 

CHAPTER  XL. 

CONCLUDING    REMARKS. 


i:^rTRODUCTION. 


AjLTHorGH  the  general  character  of  this  work  is  to  be 
inferred  from  the  Preface  and  Table  of  Contents,  it  may 
yet  be  well  to  introduce  it  by  some  further  observations 
on  what  will  form  its  main  object.  That  object  will  be 
to  establish  and  recommend  the  religion  of  Christ,  not 
only  as  distinguished  from  and  superior  to  all  other  sys- 
tems, but  as  lying  at  the  foundation  of  whatever  is  true 
in  every  other.  There  is  much  of  truth  in  the  title  of  an 
old  volume  called  "  Christianity  as  Old  as  Creation," 
though  the  work  itself  is  full  of  falsehood.  In  that  title 
given  to  our  Lord,  "  The  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world,"  we  have  the  origin  of  all  the  sacrificial 
ofierings  with  which  the  world  has  so  long  abounded. 
All  these  are  only  symbolical  and  imitative  of  that  in 
which  the  essence  of  all  true  religion  consists,  ISTot  only 
the  scriptures  declare,  but  all  humanity  has  ever  cried 
out,  that  "in  blood  is  the  atonement;"  that  without  "  shed- 
ding of  blood  there  can  be  no  remission  of  sins  ;"  but  the 
scriptures  tell  us  plainly,  what  other  traditions  only  some- 
times hint  at,  that  it  must  be  nobler  blood  than  that  of 
bulls  and  goats,  or  even  of  ordinary  men,  which  is  re- 
quired for  the  atonement  of  sin.  A  divine  j^ersonage 
must  combine  with  the  human,  by  being  born  of  a 
woman — must  unite  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  with  the 
2 


18  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

truth  of  our  mortal  nature — be  very  God  and  very  man, 
and  pour  out  his  human  life  and  human  blood  for  our 
sakes.     If  Christianity  be  not  this,  it  is  nothing  but  a 
cunningly  devised  fable,  imposed   on  men,  and  utterly 
worthless.      If  it  be  this,  then,  large  as  is  the  volume 
which  contains  our  religion,  this  must  be  its  chief  theme. 
Accordingly,  we  find  the  Old  Testament  declared  to  be  a 
schoolmaster  to   bring  us  to  Christ ;  as   the  alpha   and 
omega — the  beginning  and  the  end — the  all  in  all  of 
God's  word.     When  our  Lord  was  on  earth,  he  showed 
to  his  disciples  how  he  was  set  forth  in  all  the  ancient 
scriptures.     These  are  they,  he  would  say,  which  testify 
of  me.     This  was  the  main  object,  also,  of  the  inspired 
apostles.     But,  it  may  be  asked,  is  nothing  of  this  mighty 
truth  to  be  found  in  any  other  of  the  many  traditions, 
monuments,  or  books,  which  have  abounded  in  the  world 
for  so  many  thousand  years  of  man's  history  ?     There  is 
much  reason  to  believe,  and  many  interesting  facts  to 
show,  that  such  is  the  case.     The  true  religion  of  that 
God,  whose  voice  spake  to  our  first  parents  in  the  gar- 
den of  Eden,  was  certainly  known  to  them  and  their  chil- 
dren ;  as  certainly  to  Noah  and  his  family,  in  whom  the 
human  race  was  renewed  and  put  on  further  trial.     It 
must,  in  its  main  features,  have  been  known  to   their 
descendants,  both  before  and  after  their  dispersion  from 
Babel.     More  or  less  of  it  must  have  been  retained  in  the 
worship,   and  the  traditions,  and  monuments,  and  writ- 
ings of  the  various  families  or  nations  which  were  scat- 
tered abroad  through  the  earth,  though  gradually  per- 
verted and  corrupted  by  the  sinfulness  and  ignorance  of 
man.     To  bring  forth  the  evidence  of  this  in  a  manner 
best  calculated  to  convince  the  reader,  is  the  object  of 
this  book. 

If  the  union  of  the  human  and  divine  nature  in  the  per- 
son of  Christ,  in  order,  by  his  sufferings  and  death  and 


INTRODUCTION.  19 

intercession,  to  reconcile  man  to  his  oifended  God,  be 
the  great  theme  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  we 
must  suppose  that  much  of  the  same  must  have  been 
spread  abroad  through  the  earth  by  the  descendants  of 
Noah,  and  been  transmitted  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion, however  darkened  and  corrupted  and  turned  into 
fable.  The  sinfulness  and  misery  of  man,  calling  for 
such  a  hope  ;  the  law  of  God  written  on  the  hearts  and 
consciences  of  men ;  the  religious  instincts  of  humanity, 
for  such  there  are,  must  have  ever  inclined  them  to  cherish 
a  religion  like  that  of  Christ.  Such  it  is  believed  was 
the  case.  But  while  we  must  cherish  and  maintain  this 
belief,  let  us  guard  against  error,  for  much  error  is  to  be 
found  in  connexion  with  it.  A  great  controversy  exists, 
and  has  long  existed,  as  to  the  amount  of  natural  religion 
resulting  from  the  instinct  of  man  and  the  law  written  on 
his  heart ;  as  to  the  piety  of  the  heathen,  growing  out  of 
the  remainder  of  revealed  or  original  truth  yet  to  be 
found  in  their  superstition.  This  controversy  began  with 
some  of  the  fathers  of  the  Christian  church,  especially 
those  called  the  Platonic,  who  supposed  that  there  was 
more  of  divine  truth  in  the  philosophy  and  mythology 
of  the  pagan  world,  than  it  is  safe  to  admit.  Most  inju- 
rious were  the  consequences  of  their  error.  In  relation  to 
natural  religion  independent  of,  if  not  contrary  to  re- 
vealed, it  was  advocated  to  a  most  alarming  extent  in  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  At  the  head  of  its 
defenders  stood  Lord  Herbert,  Baron  of  Sherbury,  who 
wrote  in  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
maintained  that  there  were  certain  great  principles  or 
articles  of  religion,  five  in  number,  written  distinctly,  by 
the  hand  of  God,  on  the  minds  of  all  men,  in  every  age 
and  country,  making  up  a  system,  which  were  universally 
received  and  not  disputed.  How  contrary  this  to  history 
I  need  not  stop  to  declare.     His  Lordship's  theory  was 


20  THE  BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

well  answered  bj  different  writers,  as  may  be  seen  in 
Leland's  view  of  deistical  writers.  The  next  eminent 
writer  was  the  infidel  Tindal,  wlio  wrote,  in  tbe  early  part 
of  the  last  century,  a  popular  and  deceptions  work, 
entitled  "  Christianity  as  old  as  Creation,  or  the  Gospel  a 
republication  of  the  Law  of  ISTature."  In  this  he  endeavors 
to  show  that  there  is  nothing  in  Christianity  which  had 
not  always  been  written  on  the  minds  of  men.  Dean 
Trench,  in  his  Hulsean  lectures,  calls  him  "  one  of  the 
ablest  of  the  unhappy  band  of  infidels." 

Of  late  years  the  discussion  has  been  renewed  and  has 
assumed  a  more  dangerous  form.  Some  of  the  German 
writers  (called  Geologists)  have  improved  upon  the  Pla- 
tonic fathers,  and  found  out  so  much  of  divine  truth  in 
the  ancient  philosophers  and  mythologists,  and  in  their 
successors  of  the  present  day,  that  it  matters  little  whether 
the  gospel,  in  its  fulness  and  purity,  be  preached  to  the 
heathen  or  not.  They  so  magnify  the  amount  of  saving 
truth  which  may  be  found  in  all  the  perversions  of 
religion,  which  prevail  upon  earth  and  in  the  deep 
recesses  of  the  human  mind,  as  to  encourage  the  idea  that 
all  men  may  be  saved  by  "  the  law  or  sect  which  they 
profess,"  if  they  be  only  sincere. 

It  is  our  desire  to  seek  for  the  truth  on  this  important 
and  deeply  interesting  subject,  and  to  present  it  with 
candor  to  our  readers.  Many  sound  minds  and  honest 
hearts  are  engaged  in  its  investigation  ;  and  the  inductive 
system,  or  that  which  reasons  from  well  established  facts, 
is  faithfully  used  in  the  inquiry.  The  real  character  of 
all  the  various  religious  systems  which  are  or  have  been 
among  men,  is  carefully  sought  in  all  the  monuments, 
traditions,  and  histories  of  the  earth. 

How  far  Christ  has  been  the  desire  of  all  nations ; 
how  much  there  has  been  of  what  is  called  "  the  uncon- 
scious prophecy  of  Christ,"  in  the  groping  after  truth — 


INTRODUCTION.  21 

the  feeling  after  God — on  the  part  of  the  philosophers 
and  in  the  popular  belief  of  the  nations,  is  the  inquiry. 

We  are  persuaded  that  there  has  been  enough  to  form 
a  most  powerful  argument  for  the  truth  of  Christianity, 
as  the  revealed  religion  to  the  first  parents  of  the  human 
race,  and  as  that  which  has  been  continued  through  the 
Patriarchal,  Jewish,  and  Christian  church  to  the  present 
day. 

We  are  persuaded  that  either  the  human  race  was  not 
created  by  God,  according  to  the  popular  belief,  or  else 
that  God  did  communicate  religion  to  it.  Frederick 
I^^ewman,  the  infidel  brother  of  the  great  Tractarian  of 
England,  says  that  "religion  was  created  by  the  inward 
instincts  of  the  soul,  to  be  pruned  and  chastened  by  the 
sceptical  understanding."  Much  do  we  prefer  the  opinion 
of  Tertullian,  one  of  the  early  fathers,  who  said  that  "  the 
whole  of  Gentilism  was  either  a  distorted  copy  of  pri- 
mordial truth,  or  else  was  actually  derived  from  a  perusal 
of  the  Old  Testament  scriptures."  A  portion  of  what 
was  true  in  paganism  was  doubtless  to  be  traced  to  both 
of  these  sources.  At  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  sonie, 
both  of  Romanists  and  Protestants,  spoke  too  strongly  of 
the  amount  of  truth  to  be  found  in  the  ancient  philoso- 
phers. A  certain  Romanist  called  the  ancient  philosophy 
"  a  tacit  Christianity ;"  and  even  Zuinglius  spoke  too  favor- 
ably of  some  idolaters  and  philosophers. 

A  much  more  careful  and  deeper  search  into  the  char- 
acter of  the  various  philosophies  and  religions  of  mankind 
has  of  late  years  been  made,  by  some  of  the  most  learned 
theologians  and  scholars,  the  result  of  which  has  been 
most  favorable  to  the  belief  that  the  great  doctrine  of 
the  incarnation  and  atonement  is  sustained  by  the  gene- 
ral consent  of  mankind. 

Dean  Trench,  in  his  laborious  and  interesting  ITulsean 
lectures,  says,  "  All  men  have  been  In  one  way  or  another 


22  THE   BIBLE  AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

asking  for  that  gift  (such  as  we  Lave  in  Christ),  or  fancy- 
ing that  they  have  gotten  it,  or  mourning  its  departure, 
or  providing  substitutes  for  it."  Speaking  of  man's  near- 
ness to  God  in  Paradise,  he  says  :  "  Everywhere  they  had 
a  tradition  of  a  time  when  they  were  nearer  to  God  than 
now,  and  a  coniident  hope  of  a  time  when  they  should 
be  brought  nearer  again."  "  Ko  thoughtful  student,"  he 
says,  "  of  the  past  records  of  man  can  refuse  to  acknowl- 
edge that  through  all  its  history  there  has  been  the  hope 
of  a  redemption  from  the  evil  which  oppresses  it ;"  nor 
of  this  only,  but  that  "  this  hope  has  continually  linked 
itself  on  some  single  man ;"  and  again,  that  "  this  help 
must  be  in  a  person ;  that  only  around  a  person  could 
souls  cluster." 

Elaborate  and  learned  as  the  Hulsean  lectures  are,  a 
work  of  more  labor  and  learning  has  since  appeared  from 
the  pen  of  the  candid  and  judicious  Charles  Hardwic,' 
M.  A.,  Christian  Advocate  in  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge, England.  It  is  entitled  "  Christ  and  other  Mas- 
ters," in  four  volumes  ;  being  a  most  thorough  examina- 
tion of  all  the  religions  of  the  earth,  as  they  have  been 
and  now  are.  While  evidently  fearful  of  finding  too 
many  and  close  resemblances  between  the  religion  of  the 
Bible  and  the  corrupt  perversions  thereof,  he  nevertheless 
thus  testifies  to  the  proofs  of  a  common  and  heavenly  ori- 
gin. "  The  features  of  resemblance,  few,  dim,  and  frag- 
mentary though  they  be,  should  be  welcomed  as  so  many 
testimonies  to  the  truth  of  revelation,  as  unconscious  pro- 
phecies of  heathendom,  or  else  as  portions  of  that  spirit- 
ual heritage  which  men  and  tribes  bore  with  them  from 
the  cradle  of  the  human  race."  In  opposition  to  the  doc- 
trine that  men  have  discovered  and  made  a  religion  for 
themselves,  he  says,  in  discoursing  of  the  Hindoos,  that 
"Nearly  all  their  writings,  so  far  from  advocating  the  no- 
tion that  truth  is  self-evolved  or  a  discovery  of  the  human 


INTRODUCTION.  23 

reason,  recognize  in  God  the  only  source  of  supernatural 
teaching ;"  and  so  far  from  urging  that  the  present  age 
alone  is  in  possession  of  such  teaching,  they  proclaim  their 
frequent  obligation  to  the  purer  wisdom  of  antiquity,  and 
to  the  "  guidance  of  the  sages  who  have  delivered  it  unto 
us."  They  say  that  "  truth  was  originally  deposited  with 
men,  but  gradually  slumbered  and  was  forgotten,  and  that 
the  knowledge  of  it  returns  like  a  recollection."  This,  as 
we  shall  see  hereafter,  was  the  favorite  doctrine  of  Plato. 

In  regard  to  a  Redeemer,  Mr.  Hardwic  says,  "  Not- 
withstanding all  the  wayward  tendencies  of  men,  diverg- 
ing each  in  opposite  ways  from  the  principles  of  true 
religion,  there  was  always  in  the  heart  of  man  a  yearning 
after  an  external  Saviour.  There  was  always  a  presenti- 
ment that  such  a  Saviour  would  eventually  stoop  down 
from  heaven,  and,  by  an  act  of  grace  and  condescension, 
master  all  our  deadliest  foes,  and  reinstate  us  in  our  lost 
inheritance,"  What  is  this  but  the  doctrine  of  the  apos- 
tle as  to  the  "  whole  creation  groaning  in  pain,  waiting 
for  the  redemption." 

"  This  doctrine,"  says  Hardwic,  "  was  to  the  Hebrews, 
from  the  time  of  Abraham,  '  the  pivot  of  their  firmest 
hopes — the  key  to  all  their  scriptures.' "  Speaking  of  the 
Medo-Persians,  among  whom  such  tradition  had  lost  all 
practical  eftect,  he  says,  "Among  these,  as  well  as  in  the 
darkest  depths  of  Gentilism,  the  echoes  of  primeval 
truths  had  lingered  ages  after  they  had  lost  all  practical 
eflfect." 

Mr.  Hardwic  very  emphatically  dwells  upon  the  fact, 
that  in  all  the  other  religions  there  was  a  sad  absence  of 
any  deep  and  just  views  of  sin,  such  as  Jews  and  Chris- 
tians had,  although  they  all  admitted  the  fall  of  man,  the 
existence  of  sin,  the  need  of  sacrifice,  and  a  restorer. 

Having  adduced  these  testimonies  from  European 
writers,  I  should  do  injustice  to  our  land  if  I  did  not 


24  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

mention  one  at  least  of  the  many  valuable  treatises  of 
American  divines,  either  in  book  or  pamphlet  form,  which 
treat  on  this  interesting  theme.  The  Rev.  Eobert  Turn- 
bull,  D.  D.,  has  just  edited  the  second  edition  of  his  "Christ 
in  History,"  a  book  to  be  recommended  for  its  deep  research 
into  the  writings  of  ancient  philosophers  and  mythologists, 
and  for  the  striking  manner  in  which  he  shows  how  all  his- 
tory bears  some  testimony  to  Christ  as  the  central  idea  in 
all  the  religions  of  the  earth,  however  o'Bscured  and  smoth- 
ered by  the  fancies  and  theories  of  men.  Quoting  the 
strong  language  of  Shelley  and  Vinet,  he  says,  that  "  His- 
tory, as  a  whole,  is  a  successive  revelation  of  God,"  and 
that  "  all  the  intractable  and  contradictory  problems  of 
philosophy  find  their  solution  in  Christ."  The  result  of 
his  own  researches  is,  that  "  God,  manifested  in  some  form, 
is  the  centre  of  all  history,  past,  present,  and  to  come." 
In  the  Prometheus  of  ^schylus  he  finds  the  half  divine, 
half  human  sufierer  and  Saviour,  the  true  friend  of  man, 
while  Jupiter  was  the  awful  tyrant.  Plato  and  other 
philosophers,  he  says,  held  to  a  divine  manifestation,  an 
emanating  essence  or  deity,  called  logos,  or  wisdom,  or 
reason,  by  which  the  world  was  created  ;  not  a  mere  ab- 
straction, but  a  personality.  As  to  the  Hebrew  doctrine, 
Philo  Judeus,  born  a  few  years  before  Christ,  and  the 
greatest  philosopher  of  the  Jewish  nation,  maintained  that 
some  divine  logos,  or  word,  or  reason,  must  intervene 
beween  men  and  God  in  order  that  men  might  understand 
God.  He  it  was  whom  the  fathers  called  God  of  God, 
Light  of  Light,  very  God  of  very  God,  and  which  is  in- 
corporated into  the  Christian  creed.  He  it  is  whom  the 
apostle  calls  "  the  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory,  and 
the  express  image  of  his  person."  He  it  is  whom  the 
ancient  Jews  called  the  Messiah,  the  Shiloh,  who  was  to 
come — the  Angel  of  the  presence — the  Divine  presence — 
Emmanuel,  God  with  us.    This  was  the  God  of  Abraham, 


INTRODUCTION.  25 

Isaac,  and  Jacob,  who  so  often  appeared  to  tliem  in  the 
human  form.  God  as  the  infinite  Father  could  not  be 
seen  or  known  to  finite  man,  except  he  became,  in  a 
sense,  finite  also,  embodying  himself  in  some  material 
form,  becoming  the  word,  or  voice,  or  image  of  God.  This 
doctrine  runs  through  all  the  ancient  religions,  however 
perverted.  Thus  in  India,  Yach,  or  speech,  is  the  active 
power  of  Brahma.  In  Eg^^Dt,  while  Aman  is  the  hidden 
god,  Phtha  is  the  god  by  whom  he  produces  the  world, 
the  manifested  god.  In  Persia,  Ormazd  the  Good  creates 
the  world,  by  Honovu  the  word.  A  Chinese  sage  also 
teaches  the  creation  of  the  world  by  the  "  primordial 
reason."  The  early  fathers  maintained  that  the  ancient 
writers,  whether  poets  or  philosophers,  derived  their  be- 
lief of  the  eternal  word,  or  reason,  by  whom  the  worlds 
were  created,  either  from  the  sacred  scriptures  or  some 
original  revelation. 

All  men,  it  seems,  have  ever  been  longing  for  an  incar- 
nate God.  Even  pantheism,  which  supposes  God  clothes 
himself  in  every  material  object  of  nature,  bears  some  tes- 
timony to  this  craving  of  humanity  that  God  would  con- 
descend to  let  himself  down,  and  permit  us  to  see  him  and 
feel  something  of  him.  Even  rationalizing  and  sceptical 
men  acknowledge  that  the  human  form  is  the  fittest  for  the 
indwelling  of  the  Deity,  in  order  to  convene  with  man  and 
do  him  good.  Wherefore,  all  the  gods  of  the  heathen 
were  once  men,  or  sometimes  assumed  the  human  form, 
and  their  images  were  the  same. 

All  these  things  bear  some  testimony  to  what  the  scrip- 
tures teach  concerning  one  born  of  a  virgin,  and  who  thus 
became  "  Emmanuel,  God  with  us  " — a  second  Adam,  but 
without  sin  as  to  his  mortal  nature,  and  yet  the  second 
person  of  the  Godhead,  as  to  his  divine. 

It  is  imj)ossible  to  conceive  of  a  method  by  which  God 
could  so  effectually  draw  the  hearts  of  men  unto  himself, 


26  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

as  that  which  was  devised  in  embodying  himself  in  the 
human  form,  going  through  all  the  stages  of  human  life 
from  infancy  to  age,  and  performing  all  the  kind  offices 
of  humanity,  enduring  all  the  persecutions  of  the  wicked, 
and  at  length  suffering  all  the  agonies  of  crucifixion. 
Well  may  we  exclaim  with  a  j)ious  mystic  : 

"  The  Lord  of  all  things,  in  his  humble  birth, 
Makes  mean  the  proud  magnificence  of  earth  ; 
The  straw,  the  manger,  and  the  mouldering  wall. 
Eclipse  its  lustre,  and  I  scorn  it  all. 

"  All,  all  have  lost  the  charms  they  once  possessed ; 
An  infant  God  reigns  sov'reign  in  my  breast : 
From  Bethlehem's  bosom  I  no  more  will  rove  ; 
There  dwells  my  Saviour,  and  there  rests  my  love. 

"  Thou  art  my  bliss,  the  light  by  which  I  move ; 

In  thee  alone  dwells  all  that  I  can  love  ; 

Upon  my  meanness,  poverty,  and  guilt, 
.  The  trophy  of  thy  glory  shalt  be  built. 

"  The  more  I  love  thee,  I  the  more  reprove 
A  soul  so  lifeless  and  so  slow  to  love ; 
Till,  on  the  deluge  of  thy  mercy  toss'd, 
I  plunge  into  the  sea,  and  there  am  lost." 

— Madame  Gcion. 

The  following  testimony  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cecil  to  the 
necessity  of  an  incarnate  God,  will,  I  am  sure,  he  accep- 
table to  the  reader. 

"  A  sick  woman  once  said  to  me,  '  Sir,  I  have  no  notion 
of  God — I  can  form  no  notion  of  him.  Tou  talk  to  me 
of  him,  but  I  cannot  get  a  single  idea  that  seems  to  con- 
tain any  thing.'  '  But  you  know,'  I  said,  '  how  to  con- 
ceive of  Jesus  Christ  as  a  man.  God  comes  down  to  you, 
in  him,  full  of  kindness  and  condescension.'  'Ah  !  sir,'  she 
replied,  '  that  gives  me  something  to  lay  hold  on.  There 
I  can  rest.     I  understand  God  in  his  Son.     And  if  God,' 


INTRODUCTION.  27 

she  added,  '  is  not  intelligible  out  of  Christ,  much  less  is 
he  amiable,  though  I  ought  to  feel  him  to  be  so.  He  is 
an  object  of  horror  and  aversion  to  me,  corrupted  as  I  am. 
I  fear,  I  tremble,  I  resist,  I  hate,  I  rebel.'  " 

The  testimony  of  missionaries  to  the  power  of  this  great 
truth  is  also  most  weighty,  and  with  one  instance  of  it  I 
close  this  introduction.  Tlie  following  is  the  account 
given  of  himself  by  the  first  convert  in  Greenland: 
"  Brethren,"  said  he,  *'  I  have  been  a  heathen,  and  there- 
fore I  know  how  heathen  think.  Once  a  preacher  came 
to  us  and  explained  that  there  was  a  God.  We  answered, 
'  Dost  thou  think  us  so  ignorant  as  not  to  know  that  ? '  An- 
other preacher  began  to  teach  us,  '  You  must  not  lie,  steal, 
or  get  drunk.'  We  answered,  'Thou  fool,  dost  thou  think  that 
we  don't  know  that? '  and  so  dismissed  him.  After  that, 
one  came  to  my  hut  and  sat  down  by  me.  He  spoke  to  me 
nearly  as  follows :  '  I  come  to  you  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
of  heaven  and  earth.  He  sends  to  let  you  know  that  he 
will  make  you  happy,  and  deliver  you  from  the  misery  in 
which  you  live  at  present.  To  this  end  he  became  a  man, 
gave  his  life  a  ransom  for  man,  and  shed  his  blood  for  us.' 
I  could  not  forget  his  words.  Even  while  I  was  asleep,  I 
dreamed  of  that  blood  which  Christ  shed  for  us.  I  told 
this  to  the  other  Indians,  and  through  the  grace  of  God 
an  awakening  took  place  among  us.  I  say,  therefore, 
Brethren,  preach  Christ  our  Saviour,  and  his  suiFerings 
and  death,  if  you  would  have  your  words  gain  entrance 
among  the  heathen." 

If  Christianity  be  from  heaven,  and  God  sanctifies  men 
through  the  truth,  and  if  there  be  religious  instincts  in 
man,  then  must  they  be  moved  to  action  by  the  plain  and 
faithful  exhibition  of  this  its  great  fact,  far  more  than  by 
anything  else. 


THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  CLASSICS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

ON  THE  CHANNELS  THROUGH  "WHICH  THE  EARLY  HISTORY  OF  MAN 
HAS  COME  DOWN  TO  US. 

If,  as  we  believe,  Gocl  made  our  first  parents  accord- 
ing to  the  account  given  to  ns  in  tlie  scriptures,  we  must 
suppose  that  lie  himself  communicated  the  knowledge 
of  this  fact  to  them,  together  with  such  information  and 
instruction  as  were  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  life, 
and  for  their  comfort  and  improvement  on  earth.  Far 
be  it  from  us  to  believe  that  he  should  have  formed  such 
a  being  as  man,  and  then  cast  him  out,  ignorant  and 
speechless,  to  grope  his  way  to  knowledge  in  such  a  soli- 
tude as  was  all  around  him.  Superior  as  man  is  to  all 
other  beings  on  earth,  and  appointed  Lord  of  all,  yet,  in 
his  infancy,  and  without  nursing  care  and  instruction,  he 
is  the  most  ignorant  and  hel]3less  of  all. 

In  order  to  intercourse  with  his  Maker,  and  other 
beings  who  should  be  born  unto  him,  there  must  be  some 
power  of  speech  and  the  use  of  words.  Wherefore,  we 
find  God  not  only  speaking  to  our  first  parents,  and  they 
replying  to  him,  but  bringing  all  the  animals  to  Adam, 
that  he  might  give  them  appropriate  names  ;  for,  as  words 
are  representatives  of  things,  we  may  reasonably  suppose 
there  was  some  correspondence  between  the  names  given 
to  the  animals  and  the  qualities  of  the  same.     Bishop 


30  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

Stillingfleet  well  remarks  :  "  The  imposition  of  n^mes  be- 
longs not  to  every  one,  but  only  to  him  who  hath  a  full 
prospect  of  their  several  natures." 

Our  great  poet,  Milton,  who  was  also  no  inferior  divine, 
thus  describes  the  first  eiforts  at  speech  on  the  part  of  our 
first  father : 

"  To  speak  I  tried,  and  forthwith  spake. 
My  tongue  obeyed,  and  readily  could  name 
Whate'er  I  saw." 

"When  the  various  animals  were  presented, 

"  I  named  them  as  they  passed,  and  understood 
Their  nature  ;  with  such  knowledge  God  endued 
My  sudden  apprehension." 

Bishop  Warburton  thus  reasons  in  behalf  of  the  divine 
gift  of  language.  Regarding  it  as  indisj)ensable  that  the 
knowledge  of  divine  things  should  come  directly  from 
God,  he  says  :  "  K  God  taught  the  first  man  religion,  can 
we  think  that  he  would  not,  at  the  same  time,  teach  him 
language  ?  If  it  be  said  that  he  might  gain  language  by 
the  use  of  reason,  it  might  be  replied,  so  he  might  relig- 
ion also."* 

*  Many  traditions  of  the  ancient  world  point  to  this  as  a  fact  in  the  early 
history  of  man  ;  and,  as  there  was,  of  course,  only  one  language  at  first — and 
that,  probably,  the  language  used  by  Noah,  the  father  of  the  renewed  race  after 
the  flood — which  continued  until  the  dispersion  of  Babel,  several  nations  have 
claimed  for  their  language  the  honor  of  a  divine  original.  The  belief  of  many 
learned  men  is,  that  the  origiual  language  was  one  from  which  the  Hebrew  and 
Chaldaic  were  derived,  since  there  are  so  many  words  in  each  of  them  common 
to  both,  or  bearing  a  strong  resemblance.  Homer,  in  his  great  poem  the  Iliad, 
speaks  of  the  language  of  gods  and  men  as  difierent ;  and  one  of  his  annotators 
'aflBrms  that  the  language  of  gods,  who  were  once  mortals,  and  most  probably 
represent  Adam  and  Noah,  and  three  of  the  sons  of  each,  was  the  Hebrew, 
while  the  language  of  men  was  the  Greek,  in  which  his  poem  was  written.  As 
to  the  question,  which  of  those  that  were  used  after  the  confusion  of  languages 
at  Babel  comes  nearest  to  the  original,  or  whether  that  original  one  may  not 
have  been  retained,  for  a  time  at  least,  by  one  or  more  of  the  dispersed  tribes, 
the  learned  diifer.     Recent  investigations  into  the  roots  of  various  languages 


EARLY   HISTORY  OF   MAN.  31 

The  very  reason  of  things,  and  tlie  absolute  necessity  of 
the  case,  seem  to  require  tiiat  hmguage  should  be  the  gift 
of  God  himself.  If  our  earthly  parents  teach  us  to  speak 
as  soon  as  our  organs  are  capable  of  it ;  if  they,  through 
words,  communicate  such  knowledge  as  we  are  able  to  re- 
ceive, especially  telling  who  made  us, — how  much  more 
would  the  great  Father  teach  his  full-grown  children, 
made  after  his  own  image,  what  was  necessary  to  be 
known  by  them  concerning  himself,  and  their  duty  to  him 
and  each  other.  It  has  been  justly  remarked,  that  "K 
man  had  been  left  a  single  day  without  revelation,  it 
would  be  like  being  born  blind."  Bishop  Stillingfleet 
says,  "  If  man  was  not  convinced,  in  the  very  first  moment 
after  his  creation,  of  the  being  of  him  whom  he  has  to 
obey,  his  first  work  and  duty  would  have  been,  a  search 
whether  there  was  any  supreme,  infinite,  and  eternal  be- 
ing"— a  question  which  has  puzzled  so  many  philosophers, 
and  which  would  have  puzzled  them  much  more,  but 
for  the  light  of  tradition  coming  down  from  original 
revelation.* 

trace  them  all,  more  and  more  certainly,  to  a  very  few,  which  were  spoken 
soon  after  the  dispersion.  All  these  discoveries  tend  more  and  more  to  estab- 
lish the  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  the  human  race,  which,  of  course,  both  in  the 
first  creation  and  after  the  deluge,  spoke  but  one  language.  One  of  the  ancients 
proposes  to  settle  the  question  as  to  the  oldest  language  by  bringing  up  two 
children  in  a  desert  among  goats ;  to  which  Bishop  Stillingfleet  well  replies, 
that  "  They  would  doubtless  speak  the  language  of  goats."  I  believe  some 
experiments  of  this  sort  have  been  attempted,  but  am  unable  to  state  the  re- 
sults. 

*  The  following  lines  from  an  American,  in  a  little  poem  which  I  have  re- 
cently seen,  very  happily  express  the  views  contained  in  this  chapter  concern- 
ing the  divine  instruction  given  to  the  first  man : 

"  God  left  him  not 
To  grope  his  way,  and  win  by  long  deduction 
Tlie  precious  linowledge  that  we  have  a  God, 
But  showed  himself  at  once. 

"So  Adam  names  to  all  the  creatures  gave, 
Because  he  saw  them  in  the  light  of  God, 
From  whom  to  them  he  went." 

By  the  Rev.  Adam  IIood  Bcrwell, 
Of  Canada. 


82  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

If,  then,  there  was  this  express  communication  through 
words,  by  God  himself,  to  om-  first  parents,  they  would 
certainly  deliver  what  they  had  received  to  their  children, 
in  the  same  manner  in  which  it  was  communicated  to 
them,  and  this  stream  of  knowledge  would  flow  dow^n 
from  generation  to  generation.  This  transmission  of  ac- 
curate knowledge  of  such  important  things  as  God's  first 
dealings  with  man,  would  be  the  more  easily  effected  by 
means  of  a  fact  of  which  we  are  assured  in  scripture,  tra- 
dition, and  all  history,  viz.,  that  the  lives  of  men  were 
much  longer  than  at  present,  so  that  only  one  link  was 
necessary  to  connect  Adam  with  Koah,  and  two  with 
Abraham.  Doubtless,  after  a  time,  some  other  method, 
whether  by  books  or  documents,  was  adopted  in  order  to 
perpetuate  the  knowledge  of  what  God  had  done  for  man, 
either  at  first  or  afterwards.  There  were  not  a  few  tradi- 
tions in  the  ancient  world,  that  some  sacred  books  existed 
before  the  flood,  and  even  survived  the  flood. 

Nor  can  we  see  anything  unreasonable  in  the  supposi- 
tion that  there  were  written  characters  and  books  before 
the  flood,  when  we  consider  the  advance  made  in  some  of 
the  arts,  as  of  instrumental  music  on  the  harp  and  organ, 
and  tlie  manufactures  in  iron  and  brass,  which  we  have 
recorded  in  the  brief  sketch  of  antediluvian  history  by 
Moses.  We  know  that  soon  after  the  flood  letters  and 
books  were  in  use.  Moses,  in  tlie  seventh  or  eighth  cen- 
tury after  the  flood,  as  is  generally  supposed,  at  the  com- 
mand of  God,  committed  to  writing  his  laws ;  and  God 
himself,  with  his  own  hand,  in  characters  which  must  have 
been  well  known,  engraved  the  ten  commandments  on 
tables  of  stone. 

In  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,  with  which  Moses 
was  acquainted,  there  must  have  been  letters  and  books. 
Before  his  time  indeed,  there  is  reason  to  believe  they  had 
been  communicated  from  Egypt  to  Greece.    Is  it  then  ini- 


EARLY  HISTORY  OF  MAN".  33 

probable  that  iu  all  the  period  preceding  the  deluge,  no 
such  advance  should  have  been  made  through  which  cer- 
tain religious  knowledge  and  history  rnay  have  come 
down  to  JSToah  and  his  sons,  adding  confirmation  to  oral 
tradition,*  . 

Why  God,  in  his  providence,  permitted  such  documents 
to  be  lost,  and  so  little  of  antediluvian  history  to  be  rescued 
from  the  deluge ;  why  he  has  also  permitted  to  be  lost  so 
much  of  postdiluvian  history  from  the  time  of  the  deluge 
until  Moses,  and  even  after  Moses, — for  his  history  is  very 
brief,  and  only  of  a  small  portion  of  the  human  family,  and 
there  is  no  other ;  why  so  many  of  the  documents  and  his- 
tories of  his  time  and  afterwards,  of  which  we  have  only 
fragments,  were  permitted  to  perish ;  why  so  much  valu- 
able learning  of  Egypt  and  other  countries  was  allowed 
to  be  consumed  in  the  Alexandrine  library,  it  is  not  for 
us  to  know.  Doubtless  God  has  wise  and  sufficient  reasons 
for  this  permissive  providence,  as  for  all  else.f 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  character  or  amount  of 
tradition  and  documents  of  the  early  antediluvian  history 
of  man,  and  of  God's  dealings  with  him,  and  of  apostasies 

*  A  learned  mythologist,  the  Rev.  George  Stanley  Faber,  who  has  written 
more  extensively  on  ancient  paganism  than  perhaps  any  other,  after  stating 
some  of  the  traditions  collected  from  the  most  ancient  authors,  concerning  cer- 
tain sacred  books  said  to  have  been  preserved  in  the  ark,  or  otherwise,  con- 
cludes, that  though  he  will  not  undertake  to  determine  the  point,  yet  that  he 
sees  nothing  improbable  in  the  supposition  that  Noah  may  have  preserved  and 
delivered  to  liis  posterity  some  documents,  which  in  time  became  corrupted  into 
fable,  though  still  retaining  some  original  truth. 

Can  anything  be  more  probable  than  that  genealogies  were  carefully  kept 
before  the  flood,  of  births,  ages,  and  deaths  ;  that  they  were  preserved  by  Noah 
iu  the  ark;  and  that  Moses  was  acquainted  with  these  and  drew  his  statements 
from  them,  just  as  the  Jews  kept  their  genealogies,  and  the  Evangelists  made 
use  of  them  in  tracing  our  Saviour's  descent? 

+  The  Alexandrine  library,  the  depository  of  the  learning  of  the  ancient  world, 
was  destroyed  in  the  time  of  Julius  Caesar.  In  the  seventh  century,  the  Sara- 
cens swept  away  all  the  libraries  of  the  Eastern  world.  The  remains  only  of 
ancient  books  may  have  been  left,  and  are  dispersed  through  the  world,  as  the 
Jews  are,  to  testify  of  Christ. 

3 


34  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

from  him,  it  is  certain  that  the  knowledge  and  worship  of 
the  true  God  were  retained  in  tlie  family  of  Noah,  and 
through  him  and  his  descendants  diffused  through  the 
renovated  world. 

"Whatever  may  have  been  the  precise  object  of  that  great 
enterprise  at  Babel,  Avhich  so  displeased  the  Almighty  as 
to  make  him  disperse  the  irreligious  actors  in  it  through 
various  lands,  they  must  have  carried  with  them  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  leading  facts  of  the  history  of  man  before,  at, 
and  after  the  deluge,  and  of  God's  dealings  with  him  ;  and 
these  traditions  must  have  formed  a  part  of  their  religious 
system,  however  corrupted  that  system  may  liave  been 
before,  at,  and  after  the  daring  association  at  Babel. 
Such  was  tlie  perversion  of  the  truth  in  the  country  of 
Chaldea,  Avhere  this  impious  proceeding  took  place, 
that  we  find  God  separating  Terah  and  his  family,  (who, 
though  descendants  of  Shem,  and  properly  belonging  to 
the  land  of  Canaan,  according  to  God's  appointment,  were 
found  among  the  ungodly  posterity  of  Ham,  in  Ur  of  the 
Chaldees,)  and  carrying  them  to  Canaan.  Although  not 
renouncing  the  true  God,  yet  Terah  and  his  family,  and 
perhaps  Abraham  himself,  had  partaken  somewhat  in  the 
false  worship,  since  Joshua,  in  his  address  to  the  Israelites 
after  entering  the  land  of  Canaan,  says,  "  Your  fathers  be- 
yond the  flood — the  river  Euphrates — served  other  gods." 
Abraham  is  selected  by  the  Almighty  to  be  the  father  of 
a  special  people,  whom  he  made  the  depository  of  his 
laws  and  revelations,  in  order  to  the  preservation  of  the 
truth  among  men,  from  whom  it  was  rapidly  passing 
away. 

To  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  he  manifested  himself, 
at  sundry  times,  and  thus  kept  alive  the  true  knowledge 
of  God.  To  Joseph  also  he  showed  great  favor,  preserv- 
ing him  from  the  then  growing  idolatry  of  Egypt.  But 
something  more  was  necessary  to  save  even  the  descend- 


EAELY  HISTORY  OF   MAN.  35 

ants  of    "the  father  of  the  faitliful"  from  being  over- 
wliehned  by  that  deluge  of  impiety  and  idolatry  which 
was  sweeping  over  the  earth.     The  children  of  Israel, 
though  still  having  some  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  had 
become  but  too  much  attached  to  the  abominations  of 
Egypt,  and  could  only  be  preserved  from  utter  apostasy 
by  an  entire  removal  therefrom,  under  the  guidance  of 
Moses.      With  an   "high  hand  and  outstretched  arm," 
amidst   stupendous   miracles,  God   led   them  forth  from 
Egypt,  keeping  them  for  forty  years  not  only  separate 
from  all  others  who  might  corrupt  them,  but  in  the  midst 
of  enemies  who  resisted  their  ]3rogress  at  every  movement 
towards  the  promised  land.     While  feeding  them  from 
heaven  with  daily  bread,  and  performing  repeated  mira- 
cles, he  was  also  speaking  to  them  from  Mount  Sinai,  and 
from  the  Shekinah  between  the  Cherubim,  delivering  laws 
and  appointing  ordinances.     An  account  of  all  this  we 
have  in  the  five  books  of  Moses,  besides  a  long  narrative 
of  man's  history  and  God's  dealings  with  him,  before  and 
after  the  flood.     When  our  Lord  was  upon  earth  he  recog- 
nized these  books  as  of  divine  authority,  and  often  re- 
ferred to  them.     Moses  laid   claim  to  divine  instruction, 
establishing  it  by  many  and  great  miracles,  during  a  pe- 
riod of  forty  years,  beginning  in  Egypt  and  continuing 
until  he  was  in  sight  of  the  promised  land.     Concerning 
this  book  we  may  say,  without  fear  of  contradiction,  that 
by  consent  of  the  learned  it  is  the  most  ancient  in  the 
world.     Traditions  and  fragments  of  books,  relating  to  the 
same  great  events  referred  to  in  Genesis,  there  have  been 
in  other  countries,  before  the  days  of  Moses  and  about  his 
time;  but  none  of  these  survive,  except  in  some  fragments 
which  the  fathers  of  the  Christian  church  drew  from  the 
fragments  of  other  writers,  the  oldest  of  whom  was  many 
hundred  years   after   Moses.     The  books  of  Moses  were 
written,  according  to  general  belief,  about  seven  or  eight 


86  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

hundred  years  after  the  deluge,  and  about  four  hundred 
after  the  call  of  Abraham.  God  most  emphatically  com- 
manded him  to  write  down  all  that  was  delivered  him  "as 
a  memorial ;"  and  in  no  nation  under  heaven  was  so  much 
care  taken  of  records  as  among  the  Jews,  in  the  time  of 
Moses  and  afterwards.  Some  hundreds  of  years  after  Moses 
these  books  became  so  notorious  in  the  world,  that  Ptole- 
my Philadelphus,  a  king  of  Egypt  and  a  great  patron  of 
learning,  caused  them  to  be  translated  into  the  Greek  by 
seventy  learned  men. 

Judea  being  situated,  as  it  were,  in  the  centre  of  the 
world,  between  the  three  most  ancient  nations,  viz.,  Egypt, 
Phoenicia,  and  Chaldea,  to  which  all  others  looked  for  his- 
tory, religion,  and  philosophy,  must  have  been  an  object 
of  interest  to  the  prio^ts  and  wise  men  of  the  same  ;  and 
as  many  of  the  Jews,  from  an  early  period,  were  to  be 
found  in  Egypt,  and  in  Tyre  and  Sidon,  cities  of  Phoeni- 
cia, and  in  Babylon  of  Chaldea,  these  sacred  writings,  and 
their  religious  opinions,  must  have  been  in  some  measure 
known,  especially  when  the  philosophers  of  Greece  began 
to  travel  through  those  countries  in  search  of  all  kinds  of 
knowledge.  About  the  same  time  that  Ptolemy  caused 
the  Jewish  scriptures  to  be  translated  into  Greek,  he  en- 
couraged Manetho,  the  oldest  and  most  celebrated  histo- 
rian of  Egypt,  to  draw  up  an  account  of  the  antiquities 
of  that  country,  going  back  to  the  origin  of  the  world, 
and  embracing  of  course  in  some  measure  the  history  of 
other  nations.  The  same  great  patron  of  learning  induced 
the  celebrated  Berosus  to  write  a  similar  history  of  the  an- 
tiquities of  Babylonia,  a  country  vying  with  Egypt  as  to 
age  and  knowledge  of  divine  things.  Both  of  these  his- 
tories were  written  some  hundreds  of  years  after  the  books 
of  Moses.  Some  years  later,  Sanchoniathon  wrote  the  his- 
tory of  Phosnician  antiquities.  All  of  these  profess  to 
have  gathered  their  histories  from  monuments,  traditions, 


EARLY  HISTORY  OF  MAN.  ST 

temples,  liieroglypbics,  (not  from  any  regular  histories 
such  as  that  of  Moses,)  which  had  come  down  to  them 
from  former  times.*  They  were  not  employed  to  trans- 
late some  venerable  documents  like  the  Old  Testament, 
the  larger  part  of  which  had  been  written  and  used  pub- 
licly for  some  hundreds  of  years  by  a  people  living  in  the 
midst  of  the  greatest  nations  of  the  earth,  but  only  to  pre- 
pare histories  out  of  such  materials  as  could  be  found 
amongst  traditions  and  monuments,  and  in  their  worship. 
ISTeed  I  institute  a  comparison  between  them  ?  Even  these 
three  books,  the  oldest  in  the  shape  of  history  in  the  world 
except  Herodotus,  (whose  work  bears  the  title  of  the  nine 
Muses, — very  happily,  some  think,)  are  no  longer  in  exist- 
ence, except,  as  we  have  already  said,  in  some  few  frag- 
ments to  be  seen  in  the  early  fathers.  How  wonderfully 
has  the  providence  of  God  watched  over,  preserved,  and 
handed  down  to  us  this  sacred  volume,  while  permitting 
all  others  to  perish.f  And  yet  not  all  of  these  have  been 
allowed  to  perish.  Enough  in  fragments  has  survived  to 
show  that,  notwithstanding  all  the  fables  into  which  divine 
truth  has  been  turned,  the  leading  facts  of  the  Mosaic 
history  are  substantiated  by  general  tradition, 

Moses,  under  the  guidance  of  God's  Spirit,  was  appointed 
to  deliver  to  us  the  main  facts  of  creation,  and  ancient 
history,  and  God's  dealings  with  men,  free  from  all  admix- 

*  Philo  Biblius,  the  Jewish  writer,  says,  "It  was  the  good  fortune  of  Sancho- 
niathon  to  light  on  some  ancient  documents  which  had  been  preserved  in  the 
innermost  part  of  a  temple  of  Amnion,  and  known  to  very  few.  He  had,  how- 
ever, to  divest  them  of  fable  before  he  could  draw  any  thing  from  them."  I  am 
aware  that  grave  doubts  rest  on  the  authorship  of  the  book  ascribed  to  San- 
choniathou,  but  I  give  what  was  formerly  the  generally  received  opinion  on  the 
subject.     HTs  book  is  certainly  a  compilation  of  very  ancient  traditions. 

tSir  Matthew  Hale,  on  the  Antiquity  of  Moses'  writings,  says,  "  Many  mill- 
ions of  books  that  have  been  written  since  Moses'  time  have  been  lost ;  much 
more  those  books  which  were  written  antecedent  to  Moses'  time ; — and  the  truth 
is,  that  the  preservation  of  the  books  of  Moses  entire  unto  this  day,  when  so 
many  of  a  far  later  date  are  lost,  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  special  providence 
of  Almighty  God." 


38  .     THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

ture  of  falsehood.  It  is  not  to  be  understood  that  God  re- 
vealed to  him  all  that  he  wrote,  as  something  before  un- 
known to  himself  or  others,  but  only  that  he  was  guided 
to  write  down  what  was  true,  and  leave  out  what  was  false 
in  the  general  traditions  which  prevailed  in  his  day. 

The  knowledge  of  one  God,  and  the  temptation  and  fall 
of  man  by  the  devil,  in  the  form  of  a  serpent,  and  the 
banishment   of  our  first   parents  from  paradise,  of   the 
wickedness  of  the  antediluvians,  of  the  ark  and  deluge, 
of  the  tower  of  Babel,  had  all  been  understood  among 
men  ;  but  perversions  and  fables  and  idolatries  had  been 
blended  with  them, — and  Moses  was  enabled  to  give  a 
brief  and  true  history  of  the  works  of  God,  and  his  deal- 
ings with  men,  not  mixing  poetry,  or  philosophy,  or  as- 
tronomy, or  any  human  theories,  with  it.     Much  that  he 
knew,  and  that  others  knew,  was  omitted,  bnt  nothing  that 
was  necessary  to  the  great  object  of  his  appointment.     So 
it  was  when  the  I^ew  Testament  was  completed,  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Holy  Ghost.     We  are  told  by  St.  Luke, 
that  if  all  which  was  said  and  done  by  our  Lord  was  writ- 
ten down,  "  the  whole  world  would  not  contain  the  books 
which  must  be  written."     The  Evangelists  only  recorded 
such  things  as  were  "  surely  known  among  them,"  and 
were  necessary  to  the  great  end  and  object  of  the  Evan- 
gelical Eecord.     Of  both  these  Testaments  we  may  say, 
with  Mr.  Locke,  "  They  have  God  for  their  author,  salva- 
tion for  their  end,  and  truth  without  any  mixture  of  error 
for  their  matter."     It  is,  however,  gratifying  to  be  able  to 
bring  in  every  kind  of  testimony  to  the  truth  of  scripture, 
and  therefore  it  is  well  worthy  of  being  mentioned,  in 
this  connection,  that  there  was  a  class  of  writers  of  a  very 
early  date,  in  the  pagan  world,  who  were  esteemed  sacred 
poets,  and  who  preceded  Homer,  Hesiod,  and  others,  who 
were  the  heroic  poets.     The  former  dwelt  more   on  the 
creation  of  the   world,  on  the  first  god  or  gods,  on  the 


EARLY  HISTORY  OF   MAN.  39 

early  history  of  man,  before  and  after  the  dehige.  Hor- 
ace, iu  his  book  "  De  Arte  Poetica,"  refers  to  these  two 
classes  in  the  following  lines : 

"  Fait  haec  sapientia  qnontlain 
Publica  privatis  secernere,_  sacra  profanis  ; 
Sic  honor  et  nomen  divinis  vatibus  at  que 
Carminibus  venit.     Post  hos  insignis  Homerus, 
Tyrteusque  mares  animos  in  martia  bella 
Yersibus  exacuit." — Horace  De  Arte  Poetica. 

From  these  lines  it  seems  that  there  were,  before  the 
time  of  Homer,  some  called  divine  poets,  who  wrote  divine 
verses,  and  were  held  in  high  esteem.  The  term  vates,  or 
prophets,  was  applied  to  them.  The  names  of  the  chiefs  of 
these  poets  were  Musseus,  Orpheus,  Linus,  Amphion, 
and  Hermes,  who  are  supposed  to  have  lived  from  1250 
to  1400  years  before  Christ,  whereas  Homer  only  lived 
about  900.  If  this  computation  be  correct,  they  lived 
near  the  time  of  Moses.  They  refer  to  the  same  ancient 
events  and  periods  with  Moses,  though  they  for  the  most 
part  wrap  them  up  in  fables  and  extravagant  verses. 
They  evidently  come  much  nearer  the  original  truth,  as 
to  God  and  the  creation  of  man,  than  those  who  followed 
after  them.  As  to  the  supreme  being,  Orpheus,  or  who- 
ever wrote  the  Orphic  verses,  (for  the  authorship  is  doubt- 
ful,) had  more  scriptural  views  than  most  others.  They 
all  belonged  to  some  part  of  Greece,  though  they  repre- 
sented the  earlier  theology  of  Egypt  and  Chaldea.  In 
the  course  of  our  work  w^e  shall  have  occasion  to  adduce 
proofs  of  this.  They  appear  to  have  lived  at  a  period 
when  many  of  the  families  and  tribes,  which  had  been 
dispersed  from  Babel  and  had  settled  in  different  parts 
of  Greece,  had  sunk  into  comparative  barbarism  and 
ignorance ;  and  these  poets,  by  tlieir  verses  and  instruc- 
tions, contributed  to  the  improvement  of  the  same.     This 


40  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

is  what  is  meant  by  their  taming  wild  beasts,  by  means 
of  their  harps  and  lyres  and  verses.* 

"When  these  ancient  poets  passed  away,  and  with  them 
much  of  original  truth,  though  even  then  mixed  with  much 
error  and  fable  ;  and  when  Greece,  emerging  from  a  state 
of  semi-barbarism,  aspired  to  a  place  among  the  older  na- 
tions from  whence  they  emigrated,  and  from  which  they 
derived  their  arts  and  learning, — Homer  and  Ilesiod  new- 
modelled  their  theology,  and  in  their  poems  classified  the 
gods,  adding  many  things  miknown  before,  and  thus 
claimed  antiquity  and  originality  for  Greece.  We  have 
abundant  evidence  of  this  in  ancient  authors.  Plato  says 
that  "  The  most  genuine  helps  to  philosophy  were  bor- 
rowed from  those  who  were  called  barbarous  by  the 
Greeks ;"  that  "  they  new  mould  and  fashion  everything ;" 
that  "  other  countries  abide  more  determinately  by  the 
terms  which  they  have  traditionally  received." 

Plato  acknowledges  that  "  the  nearer  the  originals  the 
truer ;"  that  "  the  higher  we  go  up  to  the  ages  nearest 
creation,  the  more  visible  the  traces  of  truth." 

These  things,  however,  he  says,  "  were  wrapt  up  in  the 
fables  of  the  poets ;  that  he  could  only  try  to  make  the 

*  "  Credibus  et  rictu  fado  deterrnit  Orpheus 

Dictus  ob  hoc  lenire  tigres,  rabidos  que  leones 
Dictus  et  Amphiou  Thebaiiie  conditor  urbis 
Saxa  movere  sonu  testudinis  et  voce  blanda 
Ducere  quo  vellet." — Horace. 

Some  modern  wag  has  thus  described  the  power  of  Amphion  : 

"  'Twas  said  of  old  of  one  Amphion, 
That  by  his  verses  he  could  tame  a  lion, 
And,  by  his  strange  enchanting  tunes, 
Make  bears  and  wolves  dance  riggadoons." 

To  these  early  poets  of  Greece  there  might  doubtless  be  added  others  of  the 
same  period  in  Phoenicia  and  Chaldea,  all  of  whom  contributed  their  share  to 
whatever  remainder  of  primitive  truth  may  be  found  in  the  Asiatic  systems  of 
Phoenicia,  Persia,  Chaldea,  and  Judea. 


EARLY  HISTORY  OF   MAN",  41 

best  use  of  them  until  some  one  came  to  explain  them." 
Thus  spoke  the  best  of  the  philosophers  of  Greece.  They 
alluded  to  these  allegories,  by  which  some  of  the  earlier 
poets  set  forth  sacred  and  early  facts,  which  were  brought 
by  the  first  settlers  into  Greece,  but  which  were  more  and 
more  obscured  by  the  fictions  of  later  poets. 

Of  the  pagan  mythology,  as  held  by  the  Greeks,  Ave 
find  little  in  the  writings  of  the  three  ancient  historians, 
Manetho,  Berosus,  and  Sanchoniathon ;  for  this  we  must 
go  to  Homer  and  Hesiod,  who  settled  it  for  all  future 
times.  Wherefore  we  find,  that  wh^en  tlie  best  philoso- 
phers appeared,  they  went  to  Egypt  and  the  East,  the  ear- 
liest settled  countries,  in  search  of  wisdom.  Tliales,  the  first 
of  them,  drew  his  wisdom  from  Egypt,  where  he  spent 
some  3'-ears  ;  he  advised  his  disciple  Pythagoras  to  travel 
in  seai'ch  of  wisdom  among  the  ancient  nations.  Pythag- 
oras, obeying  his  master's  advice,  spent  forty  years  in 
gathering  a,ll  the  traditions  he  could  get  from  the  Egyp- 
tians, Jews,  Phoenicians,  and  Chaldeans. 

Plato,  after  speaking  of  the  traditions  of  the  eastern 
countries,  said,  "  Their  knowledge  of  the  Deity  was  de- 
rived from  the  gods ;"  that  "  the  ancients,  who  lived  nearer 
to  the  gods  than  we,  have  transmitted  it  unto  us."  He 
speaks  of  Adam's  state  of  innocence  under  the  fable  of 
Saturn's  golden  age,  but  says  that  "  we  want  a  fit  inter- 
preter of  the  fable." 

Mr.  George  Sandys,  translator  of  Ovid's  Metamorphoses, 
speaking  of  the  philosophy  taught  in  the  ancient  fables 
which  were  set  forth  by  Ovid,  says, 

"  Phoebus  Apollo  sacred  Poesy 
Tims  taught ;  for  hi  these  ancient  fables  lie 
The  mysteries  of  all  philosophy." 

By  philosophy  he  meant  heavenly  truths,  as  well  as  the 
secrets  of  nature.     Mr.  Shuckford,  in  his  able  work  on 


42  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

tlie  connection  between  sacred  and  profane  history,  says 
that  "  the  works  of  the  divine  PLato  were  full  of  the 
ancient  traditions,  though  he  sometimes  gives  them  a 
fabulous  turn  to  humor  the  Greeks."  Mr.  Bryant,  one  of 
our  most  eminent  mythological  writers,  alluding  to  this 
fabulous  turn  of  the  Grreeks,  says  that  Ilecateus  of 
Miletus  acknowledges  that  "  the  traditions  of  the  Greeks 
were  as  ridiculous  as  they  were  numerous."  Theophilus, 
one  of  the  fathers,  says,  "  They  were  blinded  by  vanity, 
and  neither  discovered  the  truth  themselves,  nor  encour- 
aged others  to  pursue  it."  Bishop  Stillingfleet  says  that 
"  the  Greeks  were  beholden  to  their  wits  for  their  history, 
being  so  much  given  to  fiction."  They  were  anxious,  he 
says,  to  be  considered  originals;  ''HJie  sons  of  the  soil 
(terraegeni) ;  the  first  of  the  human  race.''^ 

Bishop  Potter,  in  his  Grecian  antiquities,  says,  that 
"  As  geographers,  on  their  maps,  when  they  have  gone  as 
far  as  they  can,  fill  up  the  rest  with  impassable  mountains 
and  frozen  seas,  so  the  poets  and  mythologists,  who  were 
almost  all  of  Greece,  do  when  they  give  an  account  of 
ancient  things."  They  were  tlie  more  anxious  to  establish 
their  antiquity,  because  taunted  by  other  nations  with 
their  recent  origin,  being  all  of  them,  or  their  numerous 
tribes  and  nations,  colonies  from  Asia  and  Egypt.  An 
Egyptian  priest  once  taunted  Solon  with  this  saying : 
"  The  Greeks  were  always  children,  having  no  antiquity 
of  their  own."  The  Egyptians,  however,  became,  in  time, 
as  obnoxious  to  the  charge  of  exaggerating  their  age  as 
the  Greeks.  If  they  were  older,  by  settlement,  and  supe- 
rior in  wisdom  to  the  early  Greeks,  they  carried  back 
their  history  and  genealogy  much  further  into  the  region 
of  fable  than  even  the  Greeks  did.  Their  liistorian, 
Manetho,  seemed  determined  to  outstrip  Moses  in  his 
history  of  the  creation  of  the  world  and  the  dynasties  of 
the  Egyptian  kings,  carrying  them  back  thirty  or  forty 


EARLY  HISTORY   OF   MAN.  43 

thousand  years.  For  this  they  have  been  subjected  to 
the  same  ridicule  that  they  cast  on  the  Greeks.  An 
ancient  writer  said  of  tliera,  that  "  The  wisest  action 
they  ever  did  was  to  conceal  their  religion"  (meaning 
from  the  common  people) ;  and  that  "the  best  offices  of 
their  gods  was  to  hold  their  fingers  in  their  mouths,  for 
such  was  the  case  with  their  images  and  statues."  Bishop 
Stillingfleet  says,  "  It  was  as  easy  to  make  an  Ethiopian 
white,  as  to  make  an  Egyptian  tell  the  truth  about  his 
country." 

Nevertheless,  both  Greeks  and  Egyptians,  notwithstand- 
ing all  their  silly  fables  and  imaginations  about  themselves 
and  their  ancestors,  bear  strong  testimonies  as  to  the  lead- 
ing facts  in  the  early  history  of  man,  as  to  the  creation, 
the  chaos,  the  formation  of  the  first  parents,  the  fall,  the 
deluge,  the  long  lives  of  the  antediluvians,  the  tower 
of  Babel,  and  the  dispersion.  The  origin  of  their  gods 
seems  very  strongly  to  point  to  Adam  and  Koah  and  the 
three  sons  of  each,  although  their  poetry,  philosophy,  and 
astronomy  made  sad  havoc  with  original  history  and  truth. 

Very  justly,  therefore,  does  Bishop  Stillingfleet  con- 
clude, that  "  All  our  most  laudable  endeavors  after  knowl- 
edge (that  is,  original  revelation)  are  only  the  gathering- 
up  of  some  scattered  fragments  of  what  once  was  an 
entire  fabric,  and  the  recovery  of  what  was  lost  out  of  sight 
and  sunk  in  the  shipwreck  of  human  nature.  Therelbre 
it  is  that  the  Eastern  nations  had  more  of  sacred  truth 
in  their  religious  systems,  because  they  rehed  more  on 
ancient  tradition."  They  wrapped  the  ancient  truth  in 
wikl  fables,  which  the  investigations  of  such  men  as  Sir 
"William  Jones,  Messrs.  Faber  and  Bryant,  and  some 
others  have  now  explained,  by  the  help  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, in  a  manner  that  Plato,  Socrates,  and  all  the  best  of 
the  ancient  philosophers  were  unable  to  do ;  but  these 
philosophers  always  acknowledged  the  superiority  of  the 


44  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

East,  bj  travelling  thither  in  search  of  wisdom,  beginning 
with  Egypt,  which  is  an  eastern  colony. 

These  fables  and  traditions  were  merely  shadows  of 
original  revelation.  It  is  well,  therefore,  for  us  to  adopt 
the  plan  of  Thales  the  Athenian,  when  collecting  wisdom 
in  Egypt,  and  who  ascertained  the  height  of  the  Pyr- 
amids by  measuring  the  shadows.  The  Bible  is  the  great 
pyramid  of  truth ;  all  other  documents  and  traditions  are 
the  mere  shadows.  In  confirmation  of  the  foregoing  testi- 
mony to  the  superior  authority  of  the  Eastern  nations  over 
the  G-reeks  and  others,  we  may  add  that  the  Persians  and 
the  early  descendants  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Ark  are  ac- 
knowledged to  have  retained  the  most  accurate  knowledge 
of  the  early  history  of  creation,  and  true  religion  was 
longer  adhered  to  among  tliem^  than  among  otlier  nations ; 
and  their  magi,  or  wise  men,  were  the  first  to  welcome  the 
Redeemer  into  the  world.  In  relation  to  the  remark  that 
the  earlier  systems  of  paganism  M'ere  as  shadows  to  the 
substance,  we  add,  that  Archbishop  Tillotson,  in  one  of  his 
sermons,  after  discussing  the  resemblance  between  them, 
says  that  "  Paganism  must  either  have  been  a  corruption 
of  our  religion,  or  that  ours  must  have  been  accommo- 
dated to  it."  The  latter  supposition  is  so  contrary  to  all 
history,  and  so  monstrous,  that  none  can  entertain  it. 

We  have  Moses  and  the  prophets,  Christ  and  the  apos- 
tles, to  explain  to  us  all  that  was  true  in  the  ancient  fables. 
Truly  does  old  Fuller  say,  "  Without  this  history  the  world 
would  be  in  total  darkness,  not  knowing  whence  it  came 
or  whither  it  goeth.  In  the  first  page  of  this  sacred  book 
a  child  may  learn  more,  in  one  hour,  than  all  the  philoso- 
phers of  the  world  in  a  thousand  years."  To  this  we  may 
add,  that  in  a  few  succeeding  chapters  also,  we  have  more 
accurate,  though  brief  notices,  not  only  of  the  nations  de- 
scended from  Abraham,  through  Esau  as  well  as  Isaac, 
but   also  of  the   Egyptians,  Canaanites,  Chaldeans,  and 


EARLY   HISTORY   OF   MAN".  45 

Phoenicians,  than  can  be  found  in  any  other  history. 
Trnlj,  therefore,  did  our  Lord  call  the  Old  Testan)ent 
"  The  Scriptures,"  by  way  of  eminence,  there  being  none 
other  to  be  compared  with  them.* 

There  is  one  peculiarity  of  the  Mosaic  history  and  leg- 
islation, which  deserves  to  be  noticed  before  we  close. 
"While  all  the  reputed  founders  of  pagan  mysteries  and 
laws  lay  claim  to  some  god,  or  hero,  or  inspiring  genius, 
(as  ISTuma  to  the  muse  or  goddess  Egeria,)  as  the  author 
or  revealer  of  them,  and  allow  all  otliers  to  have  their  di- 
vine authors  also,  never  disputing  their  claims,  Moses  is 
the  only  one  who  ascribes  his  system  and  history  to  the 
great  Urst  cause  of  all  things — "  the  God  of  gods."  lie 
alone  declares  all  others  to  be  false,  claiming  exclusive 
honor  to  his  as  the  only  true  one.  His  God  is  a  jealous 
God,  and  will  not  give  any  of  his  glory  to  another. 

All  the  gods  of  the  heathen  could  live  together  in  the 
great  Pantheon  at  Pome  in  harmony  ;  but  the  God  of 
Moses  must  dwell  alone  in  the  Heaven  of  heavens  above, 
and  his  public  worship  on  earth  must  be  in  the  temple  at 
Jerusalem,  from  which  every  recognition  of  other  gods 
must  be  banished.  Whatever  is  true  in  other  systems, 
whether  literally  or  figuratively,  in  whole  or  in  part,  must 
come  from  the  same  original  whence  Moses  draws  his  his- 
tory. 

This  is  the  basis  of  our  book. 

Bishop  Warburton  says,  that  "  Not  one  of  the  numerous 
rabble  of  Pevelations  ever  pretended  to  have  come  from 
the  First  Cause,  or  to  have  taught  the  worship  of  the  one 
true  God  in  their  public  ministrations."  He  adds,  "  I 
have  said  in  their  public  ministrations,  for  I  have  showed 
it  was  taught  to  a  few  in  their  mysteries."     He  also  quotes 

*  Among  the  ancients  they  were  called  Pandect,  or  "Bibliotheca  Sacra,"  be- 
cause containing  all  the  books  and  tracts  on  the  subject  of  God's  communica- 
tions with  men. 


46  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

Eusebins  as  saying,  "  For  the  Hebrew  people  alone  was 
reserved  the  honor  of  being  initiated  into  the  knowledge 
of  God,  the  creator  of  all  things,  and  of  being  instructed 
in  the  practice  of  true  piety  towards  him." 


APPENDIX. 

The  subject  of  chronology,  or  the  periods  of  time 
which  mark  and  divide  the  great  events  of  history,  is  so 
intimately  connected  with  the  preceding  chapter,  that  we 
add  some  remarks  concerning  it  and  certain  events  asso- 
ciated with  it.  Infidels  triumph  in  the  fact,  that  neither 
sacred  nor  profane  history  gives  us  certain  and  accurate 
information  on  this  point,  as  though  the  great  historical 
events  of  the  world  and  dispensations  of  providence  and 
doctrines  of  revelation  could  be  established  or  refuted  by 
the  certainty  or  uncertainty  of  chronology,  affecting  only 
a  few  hundred  years  out  of  thousands. 

We  speak  first  as  to  the  testimony  of  scripture,  and 
acknowledge  that  the  learned  differ  as  to  their  under- 
standing of  it,  and  that  it  does  appear  in  some  places  to 
be  inconsistent  with  itself.  The  possibility  of  some  mistake 
in  copying  or  translating  is  admitted  as  one  cause  of  this 
seeming  inaccuracy.  Had  accuracy  been  important  in 
this,  as  in  great  saving  truths,  God,  the  faithful  keeper 
of  scripture,  doubtless  would  not  have  permitted  it.  It  is 
affirmed,  that  in  this,  as  in  some  matter  of  science,  the 
scripture  was  not  given  to  teach  all  things  which  man 
might  desire  to  know  with  certainty ;  although  all  it 
says  is  true  as  far  as  it  goes.  The  learned,  who  have 
examined  the  account  of  the  generations  and  genealogies 
of  scripture,  affirm  that  the  evident  design  of  the  same 
is  not  to  give  the  regular  succession  of  every  individual 
in  the  line,  but  only  of  leading  characters,  of  great 
events  and  dispensations,  and  there  are,  therefore,  some 


EARLY  HISTORY   OF   MAN.  47 

breaks  or  omissions,  which,  if  thej  could  be  supplied, 
would  lengthen  certain  periods  in  the  sacred  history. 
This,  they  say,  was  common  in  the  Eastern  genealogies — 
as  among  the  Arabians  and  others.  They  also  say,  that 
errors  may  have  resulted  from  the  fact  that  "  figures  had 
not  come  into  use  at  an  early  period,  but  that  alphabetical 
signs  were  employed  as  numerals."  Thus  it  is  that  they 
account  for  the  fact  that  the  three  oldest  versions  of  the 
Pentateuch,  or  books  of  Moses,  viz.,  the  HebreWj  the 
Samaritan,  and  Septuagint,  differ  from  each  other  some 
hundreds  of  years — their  difi'erence  relating  chiefly  as  to 
the  period  between  the  deluge  and  the  call  of  Abraham ; 
that  period  about  which  all  other  histories  and  traditions 
are  still  more  uncertain  and  variant.  There  is,  however, 
aflf  event  in  the  history  of  the  Jews  which  has  served  as 
.  an  era  to  all  historians,  sacred  and  profane,  about  which 
there  is  no  dispute,  viz.,  the  building  of  Solomon's  temj^le 
about  a  thousand  years  before  our  era.  From  that  time  to 
the  birth  of  Christ,  all  history  testifies  with  perfect  accu- 
racy. The  whole  period  from  the  deluge  to  the  birth  of 
Christ,  must,  of  course,  vary  according  as  the  preference 
is  given  to  the  computations  of  the  Hebrew,  Samaritan, 
■or  Septuagint  versions,  or  that  of  Josephus,  who  agrees 
most  nearly  with  the  Septuagint  translation  made  in  the 
time  of  Ptolemy  the  First. 

Archbishop  Usher's  system  of  chronology,  which  is 
most  generally  adopted,  makes  that  period  between 
twenty-three  and  twenty-four  hundred  years.  Others 
have  extended  it  to  nearly  twenty-eight  hundred  years. 
There  is  also  a  difiference  of  opinion  as  to  the  period 
between  the  creation  and  the  deluge.  The  more  general 
opinion  is  in  favor  of  between  sixteen  and  seventeen  hun- 
dred years.  Those  who  adopt  the  theory  that  the  ante- 
diluvian genealogy  by  Moses  was  rather  of  leading  charac- 
ters and  events  than  a  full  list  of  each  generation,  will  of 


48  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

course  extend  the  period,  witliout  being  able  to  deter- 
mine its  length. 

Let  us  now  inquire  as  to  tlie  chronology  of  the  heathen 
nations  of  antiquity.  Those  which  have  boasted  most  of 
their  antiquity  were  the  Egyptians,  the  Babylonians,  and 
the  Chinese.  Manetho,  the  Egyptian  historian,  and  who, 
it  is  supposed,  compiled  his  work  at  the  instance  of 
that  Ptolemy  who  had  caused  the  books  of  Moses  to  be 
translated,  calculates  that  the  Egyptian  kingdom  was 
thirty  thousand  years  old.  Berosus,  who  compiled  the 
history  of  Babylonia  about  the  same  time  and  by  the 
same  authority,  carries  back  its  age  to  four  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  years.  "  The  Chinese,  calculating  their 
eclipses  backward,  are  yet  more  extravagant.  It  seems 
scarcely  worth  our  while  to  notice  such  idle  dreams. 
They  expose  themselves  by  their  own  folly.  But  some 
things  may  be  said  which  will  serve  to  account  for  their 
extravagances,  and  the  extravagances  being  deducted, 
the  sober  truth  which  remains  will  be  found  to  accord  as 
nearly  as  can  be  expected  and  reqiiired  with  the  Mosaic 
history.  The  Eev.  George  Rawlinson,  in  his  historical 
evidences,  drawn  in  a  great  measure  from  the  researches 
of  his  brother.  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  says,  "  Upon  a  little 
consideration  the  greater  part  of  this  difficulty  vanishes. 
K  we  examine  the  two  chronologies  (of  Manetho  and 
Berosus)  we  shall  find  that  both  evidently  divide  at  a  cer- 
tain point,  at  which  all  is  certainly  mythic,  (mere  fiction,) 
while  all  below  is,  or  at  least  may  be,  historical.  Out  of  • 
the  thirty  thousand  years  contained  (apparently)  in  Mane- 
tho's  scheme,  nearly  twenty-five  thousand  belong  to  the 
time  when  gods,  demigods,  and  spirits  had  rule  on 
earth ;  and  the  history  of  Egypt,  confessedly,  does  not 
begin  till  this  period  is  concluded,  and  Menes  the  first 
Egyptian  king  mounts  the  throne.  Similarly,  in  the 
chronology  of  Berosus,  there  is  a  sudden  transition  from 


EARLY  HISTORY   OF   MAN.  49 

kings,  wliose  reigns  are  counted  by  reigns  of  sixty  and  six 
hundred  years,  to  monarclis,  the  average  length  of  whose 
reigns  very  little  exceeds  that  found  to  prevail  in  ordinary 
monarchies.  Omitting  in  each  case  what  is  plainly  a 
mythic  computation,  we  have  in  the  Babylonian  scheme 
a  chronology  which  mounts  up  no  higher  than  2450 
years  before  Christ,  or  eight  hundred  years  after  the 
deluge,  (according  to  the  numbers  of  the  Septuagint,) 
while,  in  the  Egyptian,  we  have,  at  any  rate,  only  an 
excess  of  about  two  thousand  years  to  account  for  instead 
of  twenty-seven. 

Mr.  Rawlinson  adds,  that  some  of  the  greatest  names 
in  this  branch  of  antiquarian  learning,  (the  history  of 
Egypt,)  are  in  favor  of  a  chronology  almost  as  moderate 
as  the  historic  Babylonian — the  accession  of  Menes,  ac- 
cording to  them,  falling  about  2660  years  before  Christ,  or 
more  than  600  after  the  Septuagint  date  from  the  deluge. 

Herodotus  seems  to  have  been  led  astray  as  to  the 
antiquity  of  Egypt ;  but  it  should  be  remembered  that, 
according  to  his  own  statement,  he  received  all  his  infor- 
mation from  the  priests  of  that  country,  who  showed  him 
a  long  list  of  their  kings.  But  it  is  now  well  understood 
that  there  were  several  divisions  of  Egypt, — the  upper, 
middle,  lower,  etc., — all  having  their  dynasties  of  kings, 
and  by  adding  them  all  together,  as  it  is  ascertained  was 
sometimes  done,  the  number  of  kings  and  the  whole 
period  of  their  reigns  would  be  greatly  increased.  In 
further  confirmation  of  the  more  moderate  estimate  of 
Egypt's  antiquity,  let  me  adduce  the  testimony  of  Wilkin- 
son and  Rawdinson,  those  modern,  laborious,  and  faithful 
examiners  of  the  monuments  of  Egypt  and  Babylonia. 
They  affirm  that  Egyptian  hieroglyphic al  inscriptions  on 
stone  may  be  traced  to  2450  years  before  Christ,  and  that 
inscriptions  on  brick  were  common  in  Babylonia  two 
centuries  later.  Considering  the  probability  that  Noah 
4 


50  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

and  liis  sons  brouglit  a  knowledge  of  sucli  tliingg  from 
the  old  world,  who  can  doubt  that  the  exercise  of  such 
art  should  be  exercised  in  a  short  period  after  the  deluge  ? 
They  who  knew  how  to  construct  such  a  vessel  as.  the 
ark,  must  have  been  artists  and  master  workmen,  compe- 
tent to  almost  anj  thing  which  the  ingenuity  of  men  has 
done.* 

In  relation  to  China,  Mr.  Hardwic  and  others  have, 
in  like  manner,  exposed  their  silly  pretension  to  antiquity. 
Gutzlaif  dates  the  commencement  of  the  historical  period 
of  China,  to  2207  before  Christ.  This  may  have  been 
only  a  few  hundred  years  after  the  deluge,  as  it  is  univer- 
sally admitted  that  the  human  family  moved  eastward 
with  great  rapidity. 

It  must  not  be  omitted  to  state,  in  connexion  with  this 
part  of  our  subject,  how  recent  investigations  have  served 
to  raise  the  characters  of  Manetho  and  Berosus,  and  even 
of  Herodotus,  as  witnesses  to  the  main  facts  of  scripture 
history.  Manetho  and  Berosus  (says  Kawlinson)  had  free 
access  to  all  national  records ;  and  recent  discoveries  of 
monuments  establish  their  fidelity,  and  give  them  a 
prominence  above  all  others.  It  will  be  seen,  during  the 
progress  of  our  book,  in  how  many  things  these  authors 
corroborate  the  testimony  of  Moses,  and  in  how  many 
things  the  testimony  of  the  inscriptions  found  on  tablets, 
recently  dug  up  from  the  ruins  of  Babylon  and  N^ineveh, 
and  found  in  the  ancient  temples  of  Egypt,  corroborates 
both  scripture  and  the  fragments  of  these  writers.  The 
accounts  which  Herodotus  has  given  of  the  great  Darius, 
and  those  found  in  the  book  of  Daniel,  are  now  further 

*  This  whole  subject  has  been  very  ably  and  judiciously  treated  of,  in  a  volume 
entitled  "  Science  a  Witness  for  the  Bible,"  by  the  Kev.  W.  N.  Pendleton,  of 
Lexington,  Va.  In  it  he  has  exposed  the  infidel  geologists,  who  would  find  in 
the  earth  proofs  of  the  existence  of  man  long  before  the  sixth  day  of  creation, 
according  to  Moses,  and  has  shown  that  the  difficulties  attendant  on  the  scrip- 
tural chronology  are  of  trivial  import. 


EARLY  HISTORY   OF   MAN.  51 

confirmed  by  tlie  cuneiform  inscriptions  to  be  seen  at 
Beliistan,  in  the  liiglier  lands  of  ancient  Persia.  On  a 
ledge  of  rocks  in  the  mountains  extending  from  the  Eu- 
phrates to  the  Tigris,  about  three  hundred  feet  from  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  is  engraved,  by  the  order  of  Darius, 
his  own  history.  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  and  his  com- 
panions deciphered  the  same ;  and  in  the  third  volume  of 
Herodotus,  as  translated  by  his  brother,  George  Kawlin- 
son,  are  to  be  found  twenty-four  pages  of  this  history  in 
Persian  and  English.  As  Herodotus  wrote  after  the 
time  of  Darius,  and  visited  this,  among  other  countries, 
in  search  of  materials  for  his  history,  he  may  have  ex- 
amined this  document,  or  derived  some  of  his  information 
from  those  who  were  familiar  with  it.  To  this  day  it 
stands,  high  in  air,  establishing  the  truth  of  Daniel's 
history,  while  from  the  interior  of  the  old  palaces  and 
temples  of  Babylon  and  Nineveh,  long  since  buried  deep 
under  mouldered  ruins,  are  continually  being  brought 
forth  massive  tablets,  some  of  which  are  in  our  own  and 
mother  countries,  bearing  testimony  to  the  truths  of  sacred 
history. 

For  the  period  in  which  these  things  occurred,  God  had 
been  preparing  both  his  own  chosen  people  and  the 
nations  around. 

"  After  the  age  of  Moses,"  says  Mr.  Pritchard,  "  that  of 
Samuel  has  been  fixed  upon  as  the  probable  era  for  the 
cultivation  of  literature,  when  a  school  of  prophets  is 
first  mentioned.  The  times  of  David  and  Solomon  were 
a  sort  of  Augustine  age  of  Hebrew  literature.  The  age 
of  the  great  prophets  was  that  of  the  most  sublime  poetry. 
The  time  of  Ezra,  after  the  captivity,  was  the  era  of  his- 
torical compilation." 

But  it  was  reserved  for  the  sixth  century  before  Christ 
to  be  the  period  of  more  moral  and  religious  changes, 
through  the  world  at  large,  than  ever  occurred  before. 


62  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

While  the  Hebrews  were  suffering  under  the  just  judg- 
ments of  God  for  past  defection,  and  hanging  up  their 
harps  on  the  willows  bj  the  waters  of  Babylon,  and 
learning  a  lesson  on  the  unity  of  God  never  to  be  for- 
gotten, the  philosophers  of  Greece  were  struggling  for 
divine  knowledge — feeling  after  God,  hoping  they  might 
find  him. 

In  Persia,  Zoroaster  was  changing  the  religion  of  the 
people,  borrowing,  it  is  thought,  something  from  the  cap- 
tives of  Babylon.  In  India,  Buddha  was  also  new-model- 
ling the  established  system  of  the  country.  In  China, 
Confucius  was  restoring  a  more  ancient  system,  and  all 
of  these  changes  were  gradually  preparing  the  way  for 
the  future  introduction  of  the  religion  of  Christ,  though  a 
long  and  dark  night  still  intervened. 

We  have  thus  brought  down  the  order  of  events,  through 
the  channel  of  God's  appointments,  to  a  most  interesting 
period  in  the  history  of  man,  where  chronology  is  certain  ; 
and  what  though  we  are  unable  to  fix  the  precise  era  of 
man's  creation,  or  of  the  deluge,  or  of  the  dispersion  from 
Babel,  or  the  call  of  Abraham  ?  The  general  belief  is 
that  Moses  lived  about  1500  years  before  the  Christian 
era,  but  whether  he  was  nearer  the  deluge  by  one,  two, 
or  three  hundred  years  or  more,  matters  not. 

Disputes  there  ever  have  been  as  to  the  period  when 
Homer  flourished  and  Troy  was  taken.  Herodotus  places 
Homer  between  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  before 
Christ ;  more  than  two  hundred  years  later  than  Moses.* 

Others  differ  by  one  or  two  hundred  years,  but  the 
Diad  and  all  that  is  true  and  good  in  it  still  remain. 
Some  say  that  Musseus  and  Linus  were  twelve  or  thirteen 

*  Sir  Matthew  Hale  thinks  that  Moses  wrote  540  years  before  Homer,  350 
years  before  the  Trojan  war,  and  a  considerable  time  before  the  apotheosis  or 
inauguration  of  many  of  the  heathen  deities." — Primitive  Origination  of  Man- 
Mnd. 


EARLY  HISTORY  OF  MAIST.  53 

hundred  years  before  Christ ;  one  or  two  hundred  years 
after  Moses.  An  old  writer  says  that  Musseus  was  the 
tenth  ancestor  of  Homer,  and  so  several  hundred  years 
older  than  Homer,  and  nearer  the  time  of  Moses.  It  may 
be  that  wliile  Moses  was  composing,  and  Miriam  and 
others  were  singing,  the  noble  songs  in  praise  of  God's 
deliverance  of  Israel  flying  from  Egypt,  ancient  poets  in 
other  lands  were  writing  and  singing,  according  to  the 
light  which  was  still  in  them,  some  of  the  hymns  which 
under  the  name  of  Orpheus  were  transmitted  to  later 
ages,  and  which  retained  faint  glimpses  of  the  one  true 
God  and  Saviour. 


CHAPTEE   II. 

ON    GOD,    THE    SELF-EXISTENT    CREATOR    OF    THE    WORLD    AND    OF 
ALL    THIlSrGS    THEREIN. 

Our  plan  in  tlie  following  treatise  will  be,  first,  to  state 
briefly  from  scripture  the  account  there  given  of  tlie  sub- 
jects discussed  in  the  several  chapters,  and  then  show 
what  confirmation  that  account  derives  from  heathen 
writers. 

In  the  first  verse  of  the  book  of  Genesis  it  is  wiitten, 
"  In  the  beginning  God  made  the  heavens  and  the  earth." 

When  Moses  was  commanded  to  lead  the  children  of 
Israel  out  of  Egypt,  he  asked  by  what  name  he  should 
call  that  God  who  spoke  to  him,  for  there  were  then  many 
who  were  worshipped  as  gods.  In  reply,  God  declared  him- 
self to  be  "  I  am  that  I  am ;"  bids  him  say,  "  I  am  hath 
sent  thee."  Its  meaning  was,  the  eternal  self-existent 
God,  by  distinction  from  all  others  called  gods. 

The  name  Jehovah  is  also  often  used  in  scripture,  and 
means  the  same  thing.  The  Hebrews,  out  of  reverence 
to  it,  never  used  it  in  common  speech,  but  chose  some 
other  expression  of  the  divine  attributes,  as  Eloi  or  JEloi- 
him^  Ja  or  Sabbaoth.  In  Deuteronomy  vi.  4,  it  is  writ- 
ten, "  Hear,  0  Israel,  the  Lord  thy  God  is  one  Lord." 
In  opposition  to  all  the  supposed  gods  in  heaven  and 
earth,  Moses  declares  that  God  said  to  him,  "  I  am  he, 
and  even  I  am  he,  and  there  is  no  God  with  me."  Joshua 
calls  him  the  "  Living  God,"  "  Tlie  God  in  heaven  above, 
and  in  the  earth  beneath."  Solomon  says,  "The  heaven 
and  heaven  of  heavens  cannot  contain  thee."     David 


GOD,   THE   SELF-EXISTENT  CREATOR.  55 

says,  "  There  is  no  God  beside  thee."  Job  says,  "  In  his 
hand  is  the  soul  of  every  living  thing,  and  the  breath  of 
all  mankind."  Isaiah  says,  "  I  am  the  first  and  I  am  the 
last,  and  beside  me  there  is  no  God."  St.  Paul  calls  him 
"  The  one  God  and  Father  of  all,  who  is  above  all,  and 
through  all,  and  in  you  all " — Eph.  iv.  Also,  "  The  king 
eternal,  immortal,  and  invisible,  the  only  wise  God" — 1 
Timothy.  Let  these  suffice  out  of  the  numbers  which 
might  be  adduced  to  the  same  efiect. 

Now,  as  to  the  confirmation  of  the  scriptural  account 
from  other  sources,  I  quote  the  words  of  the  learned  Dr. 
Cudworth  in  his  most  profound  work,  "  The  Intellectual 
System,"  as  approved  by  Mr.  Leland  in  his  most  valuable 
work  "  On  the  Advantages  of  the  Christian  Revelation." 
"  Tliough  the  poets  were  the  great  depravers  of  the  true 
primitive  religion  and  theology  among  the  pagans,  yet 
they  kept  up  the  ancient  tradition  of  one  supreme  deity. 
Amidst  the  crowds  of  divinities  they  mention,  there  is 
still  runnino:  throuo-h  all  their  writino^s  the  notion  of  one 
supreme,  of  whom  they  speak  in  the  most  exalted  terms, 
and  to  whom  they  ascribe  the  higliest  divine  attributes, 
and  which  are  really  peculiar  to  the  true  God."  Still, 
these  able  writers  acknowledge  that  the  poets  often  con- 
founded him  whom  they  represent  as  the  supreme  deity 
with  that  Jupiter  who  was  the  son  of  Saturn  and  Ehea, 
and  of  whom  such  indecent  stories  were  told.  St.  Paul 
tells  us  that  the  heathen  did  not  "  choose  to  retain  God 
in  their  knowledge ;"  therefore  God  gave  them  up  to  them- 
selves, and  they  believed  all  the  lies  which  in  time  came 
to  be  added  to  the  original  truth. 

But  Mr.  Leland  quotes  many  passages  from  ancient 
authors,  showing  the  existence  of  an  eternal  being,  the 
creator  of  the  world. 

Among  the  works  of  Aristotle  there  is  a  quotation  from 
an  ancient  work,  '•'-De  Mundo^''  which  says,  that  "this 


5G  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

was  an  ancient  tradition  or  doctrine  descended  to  all 
men  from  their  fathers." 

Plutarcli  himself  said, -though  there  were  one,  ten,  fifty, 
or  an  hundred  worlds,  they  were  all  subject  to  one  su- 
preme, solitary,  and  independent  God.  The  Stoics  held 
one  su^ireme,  eternal,  independent  God,  but  also  that  the 
world  was  full  of  gods  and  demons.  These  latter  being 
created,  in  time,  by  the  one  God,  would  all  one  day  be  de- 
stroyed. Most  of  the  philosophers  considered  the  Gods  as 
being  part  of  the  supreme,  as  members  of  a  body,  as  a 
congeries  of  gods,  and  therefore  used  the  term  Gods  and 
God  as  synonymous.  Thus  did  Plato,  Socrates,  and  Cicero. 
In  his  last  moments,  according  to  Plato,  Socrates  said, 
"  If  the  Gods  will  have  it  so,  let  it  be  so ;"  but  shortly  after, 
"  If  God  will  have  it  so,"  using  the  term  God  and  Gods 
as  meaning  the  same  thing.  This  is  the  constant  custom 
of  the  philosophers  and  many  others. 

Plutarch,  in  his  work  on  Egyptian  antiquities,  repre- 
sents it  as  an  opinion  of  the  utmost  antiquity,  which  had 
not  its  original  from  any  known  author,  and  was  generally 
spread  among  Greeks  and  barbarians. 

Plato  and  Cicero  speak  often  and  strongly  in  the 
same. style.  Traditions  also  exist  to  the  same  effect  in 
nations  where  it  was  least  to  be  expected,  as  among  the 
Hottentots,  the  negroes  of  Guinea,  throughout  India,  in 
Ceylon,  and  in  America.  Very  justly  does  Mr.  Leland 
conclude,  with  many  other  learned  men,  that  "  It  is  most 
natural  to  ascribe  this  remarkable  fact  to  the  remains  of 
an  ancient  universal  religion,  which  obtained  from  the 
beginning,  and  was  derived  from  the  first  ancestors  of  the 
human  race." 

The  learned  Stillingfleet,  in  his  "  Origines  Sacrw,"  de- 
clares as  the  result  of  all  his  inquiries  into  the  early  records 
of  man,  that  "There  does  not  appear  so  much  as  a  single 
dissenter,  in  the  early  ages,  a^  to  the  existence  of  a  God." 


GOD,   THE   SELF-EXISTENT  CREATOR.  57 

Atheism  is  a  tiling  of  mucli  later  growth,  and  was  sel- 
dom found  even  among  the  sceptical  philosophers.  Dr. 
Cudworth  calls  it  "  a  dull,  earthl}^  disbelief  of  the  exist- 
ence of  any  thing  beyond  the  reach  of  sense." 

The  first  approach  to  a  reference  to  atheism  is  to  be 
found  in  Homer,  who  makes  Hector  say, 

"  The  weakest  atheist  wretch  all  heaven  defies, 
But  shrinks  and  shudders  when  the  thunder  flies." 

Perhaps,  however,  as  the  thunderer  was  Jupiter  the 
son  of  Saturn,  we  ought  not  to  consider  those  who  denied 
his  supreme  divinity  as  among  the  atheists.  Neverthe- 
less, he  certainly  ascribes  to  him  some  of  the  attributes  of 
the  great  God,  as  in  the  following  lines : 

"  0  thou  Supreme,  high  thron'd,  all  height  above, 
Such  was  our  word,  and  fate  our  word  obeys." 

To  him  are  ascribed  "  The  wise  counsels  of  the  eternal 
mind."  He  is  called  the  God  of  gods.  "  The  first  and 
greatest  God  by  gods  ordained." 

"  If  I  but  stretch  this  hand. 
The  heavens,  the  gods,  the  ocean,  and  the  land. 
The  united  strength  of  all  the  gods  above, 
In  vain  resists  the  omnipotence  of  Jove, 
Supreme  of  gods,  unbounded  and  alone." 


Again, 


"  Immortal  Jove,  high  heaven's  superior  Lord, 
Father  of  gods  and  men." 


The  Gentiles,  thus  enlarging  from  time  to  time  the 
number  of  their  gods,  yet  retained,  for  the  most  part,  the 
same  rites  and  sacrifices  of  which  we  read  in  scripture,  as 
appointed  and  used  in  the  service  of  Jehovah  ;  still  offer- 
ing them  to  him  also  as  father  and  chief  of  the  gods, — a 
fact  which  shows  that  originally  it  was  the  one  God  in 
whom  they  believed.     In  process  of  time  there  grew  up 


68  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

among  the  poets  and  pliilosopliers  a  kind  of  atheism,  which 
supposed  that  God  was  not  the  creator  of  the  world,  but 
only  the  soul  of  it ;  just  as  our  souls  animate  and  govern 
our  bodies,  but  do  not  make  them.  Others,  again,  thought 
that  the  whole  world  of  matter  and  spirit  was  God  him- 
self, and  had  no  maker.  These  were  certainly  atheists. 
Others  of  a  less  dangerous  character  there  were,  who 
thought  that  matter  was  eternal,  but  that  a  divine  mind 
fashioned  it  into  various  forms,  thus  making  our  world 
and  all  things  in  it  of  eternally  preexisting  materials. 
This,  however,  is  certainly  not  the  scriptural  account  of 
God  and  creation. 

To  ascribe  eternal  existence  to  matter -is  to  give  to  it 
one  of  the  main  attributes  of  God,  and  is  a  species  of 
atheism.  Sjiinoza,  a  modern  infidel,  held  that  all  things 
were  necessary  emanations  from  God,  and  modifications 
of  his  essence,  not  creations  by  him. 

One  of  the  philosophers,  Plotinus,  reasons  thus:  The 
great  king  of  the  universe  shows  his  greatness  chiefly  by 
the  multitude  of  gods — ^iiot  by  contracting  himself  into 
one,  but  by  expanding  himself  and  having  many  gods  to 
rule  over.  Even  Aristotle  says,  "  There  is  one  God,  the 
king  and  father  of  all ;  and  many  gods,  sons  of  gods, 
co-reigners  with  God ;  these  things  both  the  Greeks  and 
barbarians  alike  affirm."  Well  did  Strabo,  the  Eoman  his- 
torian, declare,  that  "Moses  had  better  notions  of  God 
than  the  Egyptians." 

The  doctrine  of  pantheism  became  so  current  in  Egypt, 
that  there  was  an  altar  in  that  coftntry  to  the  chief  female 
deity,  Isis,  with  this  inscription  : 

"  Tibi  unae  quae  es  omnia." 

Others,  again,  there  were,  who  held  that  matter  was  eter- 
nal, though  not  independent  of  God,  but  rather  proceeding 
from  him,  and  coeval  with  him ;  as  light,  though  proceed- 


GOD,   THE   SELF-EXISTENT  CREATOR.  59 

ing  from  the  sun,  was  coeval  witli  it.  It  is  somewliat  in 
tlie  same  way  tliat  we  speak  in  relation  to  the  Trinity, 
that  the  Son  proceeds  from  the  Father,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost  from  the  Father  and  the  Son,  though  all  are  equal 
and  all  eternal. 

FUETHEE   CONFIEMATIONS   OF   THE   SCEIPTUEAL   DOCTEINE 
FEOM   ANCIENT   AUTHORS. 

According  to  Diogenes  Laertius,  the  ancient  Greek  poet 
Linus  begins  a  poem,  which,  in  our  language,  reads  thus: 

"  There  was  a  time,  when  all  things  rose  at  once." 
To  Orpheus,  or  the  author  of  the  Orphic  verses,  sup- 
posed to  be  the  most  ancient  writer  among  the  heathen, 
are  ascribed  the  following  lines :  "All  things  were  made 
by  God,  and  God  is  all  things."  "All  things  were  in  the 
womb  of  God."  "All  things  were  out  of  God."  Plutarch 
ascribed  to  Hermes,  who  was  reputed  to  be  the  most 
ancient  of  Egyptian  wi'iters,  the  following  :  "  This  whole 
world  is  a  great  god,  and  the  image  of  a  greater."  "  The 
Lord  of  eternity  is  a  great  God,  and  the  second  is  the 
world."  "  It  belongs  to  the  great  God  to  see  all  things, 
and  to  be  seen  of  none."  Plutarch  tells  us,  that  in  the 
temple  of  Sais  in  Egypt  there  was  an  inscription  in  these 
words:  "  I  am  all  that  hath  been,  is,  and  shall  be,  and  my 
peplum,  or  veil,  no  mortal  hath  uncovered."  He  also  in- 
forms us,  that  the  inhabitants  of  Thebais,  one  of  the  ancient 
divisions  of  Egypt,  never  would  acknowledge  any  mortal 
god ;  but  worshipped  an  unmade  eternal  Deity,  refusing 
to  pay  any  tax  for  the  worship  of  other  gods. 

It  is  a  well  known  fact,  in  ancient  history,  that  the 
Persians  retained  the  worship  of  the  true  God  longer  than 
any  of  the  nations  around ;  and  that  they  urged  Xerxes  to 
destroy  all  the  temples  of  Greece,  saying  that  God's  temple 
was  the  universe,  and  that  he  would  not  be  confined  to 


60  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

the  temples  made  witli  hands.  This  sentiment  is  promi- 
nently set  forth  in  the  prayer  of  Solomon,  at  the  dedica- 
tion of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem.  Though  the  Persians  fell 
into  the  idolatry  of  worshipping  the  heavenly  bodies,  still 
the  remains  of  their  early  traditions  furnish  us  with  some 
valuable  testimonies  to  the  truth  of  the  Mosaic  account. 

The  Egyptians  worshipped  God  at  an  early  period,  under 
the  name  Cneph ;  and  they  fabled  the  creation  of  the  world, 
by  saying  that  out  of  his  mouth  proceeded  an  egg,  from 
which  all  nations  sprung,  or  were  hatched.  At  another 
period  he  was  called  Jupiter,  whose  spirit  was  said  to  per- 
vade all  things.  One  of  the  ancient  poets  gives  us  the 
following  description  of  Jupiter : 

"  Jupiter  est,  fuit,  atque  erit ;" 

which  comes  nearer  to  the  ^^I  am  that  I  am^''  of  the  scrip- 
tures, than  an3''thing  else  we  have  found  among  the  pagan 
writers. 

Cudworth  maintains  that  the  Jupiter  of  the  ancients 
was  often  identified  with  the  great  God  of  the  universe  ; 
that  when  he  is  called  Pater  optimus  Deorum,  the  Father 
of  gods  and  men,  he  is  then  the  great  Numen,  or  God  of 
the  universe.  Tlius  Yirgil  makes  -^neas  call  him,  OK 
Pater,  oh  hominwn  Divum  que,  Eterna  Potestas.  Though, 
in  another  place,  he  falls  into  the  pantheistic  view^  and 
makes  Jupiter  pervade  all  nature,  and  identifies  him  with 

matter : 

"Spiritus  intus  alit,  totas  que  infusa  per  artus, 
Mens  agitat  molem,  et  magno  se  corpori  miscet." 

But  there  is  no  inconsistency  in  doctrine  of  which  the 
poets  may  not  be  convicted,  for  the  want  of  revelation.  All 
that  we  can  expect  of  them  are  some  remnants  of  original 
truth,  some  testimonies  to  facts  in  the  early  history  of 
men,  and  even  these  mixed  up  with  more  or  less  fables. 

As  to  the  very  name  of  the  Deity,  there  was  a  feeling 


GOD,    THE   SELF-EXISTENT   CREATOR.  61 

among  some  of  the  pagans  like  that  among  the  ancient 
Jews,  which  made  them  fear  to  use  it  lest  it  shonld  be 
taken  in  vain.  Thus  Plato  says,  "The  Father  of  the  uni- 
verse cannot  be  named."  "The  fables,"  he  said,  "spoke  most 
of  God  and  creation  ;  but  he  could  not  explain  them,  and 
must  wait  until  some  one  should  come  and  tell  their 
meaning,"  The  ancient  Romans  worshipped  one  whom 
they  called  SvAmnanus,  and  who  was  greater  than  their 
Jupiter ;  though,  in  process  of  time,  when  the  great  Jupiter 
Capitolinus  was  set  up  in  Rome,  they  transferred  the 
chief  woTsMjp  to  him.  As  to  the  first  god,  Numa,  second 
king  of  the  Romans,  and  famed  for  his  piety,  directed  that 
no  one  should  attempt  to  express  the  ineffable  name  of 
God,  and  for  nearly  two  centuries  after  the  building  of 
Rome  no  images  were  allowed  either  in  sculpture  or  paint- 
ing. As  to  the  difficulty  of  understanding  the  nature 
of  that  God  who  declares  that  "  none  by  searching  can 
find  him  out ;"  that  "  no  man  hath  seen  him,  or  can  see 
him ;"  that  "  he  hideth  himself  in  darkness," — the  story 
of  Simonides,  the  poet,  is  worthy  of  being  mentioned. 
"  Being  asked  by  Hiero,  king  of  Syracuse,  what  God  was, 
he  desired  a  day  to  answer  the  question  ;  and  when  that 
period  had  expired,  he  requested  two  days ;  upon  being 
again  called  upon  for  his  answer,  he  doubled  the  number, 
and  continued  so  to  do,  when  he  was  urged  upon  the  sub- 
ject. The  king,  therefore,  expressed  his  surprise,  and 
inquired  his  reason.  I  do  so,  said  the  poet,  because  the 
longer  I  meditate  upon  the  subject,  the  less  I  find  myself 
able  to  answer  the  question."  Yery  much  of  the  same 
mind  was  Plato,  who  said  that  "  we  ought  not  curiously 
to  inquire  what  God  is ;"  and  again,  that  "  it  was  difficult 
to  find  out  the  author  of  the  universe,  and  when  found,  it 
was  impossible  to  discover  him  to  all  the  world."  Thus 
we  see  that  Plato  held  the  existence  of  a  supreme,  super- 
intending Deity,  although  he  believed  also  in  the  eternity 


62  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

of  matter,  and  of  many  inferior  gods  wlio  watclied  over 
the  affairs  of  men,  and  onglit  to  be  worshipped. 

Cicero  also  believed  in  the  gods^  as  well  as  in  the  su- 
preme Deity,  and  yet  says,  in  relation  to  the  works  of 
natnre,  "How  is  it  possible  for  ns,  when  we  behold 
these  things,  to  entertain  a  donbt  that  there  presideth 
over  them  some  maker  of  so  great  a  work."  The  same 
Cicero  admits,  that "  The  earth  was  the  oldest  of  all  the 
gods  generated  in  the  heavens,"  for  he  believed  that  all 
the  heavenly  bodies  were  gods  moving  through  the  heav- 
ens by  an  animating  spirit,  and  shedding  light  and  heat. 
Plato  and  Cicero  are  considered  as  the  great  teachers  of 
the  unity  of  God,  and  yet  we  see  how  far  they  fall  short 
of  the  unity  taught  in  scripture.  They  upheld,  it  is  true, 
the  ancient  mysteries,  and  were  initiated  into  them.  In 
them  the  imity  of  God  was  sometimes  set  forth.  Bishop 
Warburton,  a  great  defender  of  the  heathen  against  the 
charge  of  denying  the  unity  of  God,  quotes  the  following 
passage  from  one  of  the  hymns  sung  in  the  celebration  of 
the  Elusinian  mysteries,  "  Go  on  and  see  the  sole  Governor 
of  the  world ;  he  is  one,  and  of  himself  alone,  and  to  that 
one  all  owe  their  being.  He  operates  through  all,  was 
never  seen  of  mortal  eyes,  but  does  himself  see  every- 
thing." As  I  wish  to  adduce  whatever  is  most  important 
in  favor  of  the  acknowledgment  of  the  one  true  God 
by  the  ancients,  I  introduce  the  judgment  of  the  cele- 
brated Sir  "William  Jones,  as  set  forth  in  his  "Asiatic 
Researches."  Brahm,  the  great  Father,  thus  addresses 
Brahma,  one  of  his  three  emanations :  "  Even  I  was  at  first, 
not  any  other  thing ;  that  which  exists  unperceived  and 
supreme."  Again  he  says,  "  I  am  that  which  is,  and  who 
must  remain  I  am." 

Truth,  however,  requires  us  to  say,  that  the  worship  of 
the  supreme  Deity  did  not  keep  pace  with  the  acknowl- 
edgment of   his  existence.     His  original  creative  power 


GOD,    THE   SELF-EXISTENT   CREATOR.  63 

was  admitted,  but  his  providential  care  over  men,  in  an- 
swer to  prayer,  was  not  relied  on.  On  the  inferior  deities, 
as  ministers  of  the  great  God,  and  as  mediators  between 
men  and  God,  was  the  chief  reliance.  Of  this  we  shall 
speak  more  fully  hereafter.  We  only  now  say  that  the 
God  of  Moses  and  of  Christians  is  especially  the  God 
"  who  heareth  prayer,"  a  God  "  near  to  us,"  and  not  "  afar 
off,"  attending  only  to  great  matters,  or  else  supinely  enjoy- 
ing himself  in  the  great  abyss  of  eternity.  "  He  that 
cometh  unto  God  must  not  only  believe  that  he  is^  but 
that  he  is  the  rewarder  of  all  those  who  diligently  seek 
him,"  is  the  scripture  doctrine.  .-^ 

"  T]iis  notion,"  says  Mr.  Leland,  "  as  to  the  Deity  not 
concerning  himself  with  the  affairs  of  this  world,  and 
committing  them  to  inferior  deities,  obtained  very  gene- 
rally among  the  pagans,  and  was  a  fruitful  source  of  idol- 
atry." It  was  not  a  mere  poetical  flight  which  said  "  Ifec 
Deus  intersit,  nisi  dignus  vindice  nodus,"  but  was  a  deep 
sentiment,  which,  it  is  to  be  feared,  finds  a  place  in  the 
hearts  of  too  many,  even  now.  It  was  the  very  basis  of  the 
Epicurean  system,  and  a  source  of  much  of  its  immorality. 

It  appears,  from  both  ancient  and  modern  accounts 
of  India,  that  they  worship  one  great  being  as  the  cause 
of  all  things,  but  think  he  does  not  concern  himself  about 
little  things,  having  created  other  gods  to  be  his  vice- 
gerents. These  again  have  their  subordinates,  to  each  of 
whom  worship  is  due. 

The  Peruvians  acknowledged  a  great  God,  but  said  he 
was  invisible,  and  therefore  they  could  not  know  him,  and 
therefore  seldom  erected  temples  to  him,  or  offered  wor- 
ship to  him.  Only  one  or  two  temples  to  the  great  God 
were  to  be  found  in  Peru.  The  people  of  Florida  were  of 
the  same  mind  and  practice.  The  people  of  Guinea  also 
acknowledge  a  great  being,  but  say  he  is  too  far  ofi"  to 
take  notice  of  poor  mortals  ;  therefore  neither  pray  to  him 


64  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

nor  praise  him,  but  pray  and  sacrifice  to  a  number  of 
small  deities.  While  the  passage  in  St.  Paul,  taken  from 
the  poet  Aratus,  concerning  "  our  being  the  offspring  of 
God,"  and  "  living,  moving,  and  having  our  being  in 
him,"  shows  that  there  were  some  at  least  who  entertained 
more  just  views  of  his  i-elation  to  us;  yet,  when  we  con- 
sider the  difference  of  these  and  of  Epicurean  and  practi- 
cally atheistic  views,  we  must  acknowledge  the  indispen- 
sable necessity  of  knowing  God,  and  not  wonder  that  St. 
Paul's  spirit  was  stirred  witliin  him,  at  the  inscription  at 
Athens  "  To  the  unknown  God."  How  thankful  should 
we  be  that  we  know  the  one  God,  and  one  Mediator,  and 
trust  not  to  all  the  gods  and  mediators  of  the  heathen. 

The  great  Mr.  Locke  says,  that  "  In  the  crowd  of  wrong 
notions  and  invented  rites,  the  world  had  almost  lost  sight 
of  the  true  God."  The  fact  is,  that  neither  did  the  priests 
teach  men  virtue,  as  the  same  writer  has  well  said,  but  it 
was  not  considered  the  duty  of  their  greatest  gods  to 
make  men  good.  It  was  their  highest  oflice  to  bestow 
earthly  blessings  and  avert  earthly  evils.  Sophocles  might 
say,  "  There  is  one  God,  who  made  the  broad  earth  and  the 
waves  of  the  sea  and  the  force  of  the  winds ;  "  but  he 
could  not  say  of  him,  that  "  every  good  and  perfect  gift 
cometh  down  from  him;"  and  that  "  if  any  lack  wisdom, 
let  him  ask  of  God,  who  giveth  to  all  men  liberally,  and 
upbraideth  not." 

There  is  one  of  the  ancient  traditions  of  the  poets  and 
doctrines  of  the  mythologists  and  philosophers  in  relation 
to  the  first  cause  of  all  things,  which  we  must  not  omit. 
The  oldest  of  the  Deities,  the  source  of  men  and  gods  and 
all  worlds,  is  said,  in  some  of  the  ancient  systems,  to  be 
Love — the  principle  of  Love.  Every  thing  in  the  heathen 
mythology  has  been  deified,  whether  of  matter  or  mind, 
whether  virtues  or  vices.  Would  that  all  had  been  as 
worthy  of  honor  as  the  being  or  principle  called  Love  y 


GOD,    THE   SELF-EXISTENT   CREATOR.  65 

for  St.  John  himself  says,  "  God  is  Love^  and  whatsoever 
is  born  of  God  loveth  also."  Among  the  celebrated 
Orphic  songs  ascribed,  whether  truely  or  not,  to  Orphens, 
yet  certainly  among  the  oldest  of  the  sacred  poetry  of 
pagan  worshippers,  we  have  the  following :  "  We  will 
sing  a  pleasant  and  delightful  song  concerning  the  ancient 
chaos  ;  how  heaven,  earth,  and  seas  were  framed  out  of 
it,  as  also  concerning  that  much  wise  and  sagacious  Love, 
the  eldest  of  all  the  Deities,  and  self-perfect,  separating  one 
thing-  from  another." 

Mr.  George  Sandys,  who  in  the  wilds  of  Virginia  trans- 
lated Ovid's  Metamorphoses  into  English,  thus  refers  to 
this  ancient  tradition  : 

"Fire,  Air,  Earth,  Water — all  tlie  opposites 
That  strove  in  chaos — powerful  Love  unites, 
And  from  their  discord  drew  this  harmony 
That  smiles  in  nature." 

How  dreadful  to  think  that  this  doctrine  of  Love,  as 
being  the  moving  principle  of  God's  creation,  should,  in 
the  hands  of  man,  become  so  corrupted  as  to  be  enshrined 
in  the  persons  and  actions  of  Yenns  and  Cupid,  and  the 
very  worst  abominations  of  the  heathen  worship. 
5 


CHAPTER   III. 


ON    THE    CREATION, 


Having  discoursed  on  tlie  Creator,  we  now  proceed  to 
consider  tlie  Creation. 

Moses  informs  us  that  "  In  the  beginning  God  created 
the  heavens  and  the  earth  ;  and  that  the  earth  was  with- 
out form,  and  void,  and  that  darkness  was  upon  the  face 
of  the  deej) ;  and  that  the  spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the 
face  of  the  waters."  St.  Paul,  in  his  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews, says,  "  The  worlds  were  framed  by  the  word  of 
God,  so  that  things  which  are  seen  were  not  made  of 
things  which  do  appear." — Heb.  xi.  3.  In  his  Epistle 
to  the  Komans,  he  says  that  "  the  invisible  things  of  him, 
from  the  creation  of  the  world,  are  clearly  seen,  bemg 
understood  by  the  things  that  are  made,  even  his  eternal 
power  and  Godhead."  "  In  the  beginning,"  according  to 
Moses,  and  "  from  the  creation  of  the  world,"  according 
to  St.  Paul,  must  mean  the  same  thing.  "We  must  not, 
therefore,  understand  the  words  "  In  the  beginning"  as 
being  from  all  eternity,  since  there  is  no  beginning  to  eter- 
nity, God  alone  being  eternal.  The  expression  only 
means  a  certain  point  in  what  we  call  time,  when  God 
made  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  all  things  therein. 
We  measure  time  by  the  seasons,  and  revolutions  of  the 
earth,  and  the  heavenly  bodies.  Of  eternity  there  is  no 
measure.  Our  English  poet,  Cowley,  in  his  poem 
Davideis,  or  the  troubles  of  David,  has  happily  expressed 
this  : 


ON  THE   CEEATION.  67 

"  Nothing  is  there  to  come,  and  nothing  past, 
But  an  eternal  now  does  ahvays  last. 
There  sits  the  Almighty,  first  of  all,  and  end. 
Whom  nothing  but  himself  can  comprehend  ; 
"Who  with  his  word  commanded  all  to  be, 
And  all  obeyed  him,  for  that  word  was  he. 
Only  he  spoke,  and  all  that  is 
From  the  womb  of  fertile  nothing  ris.' 

The  schoolmen  call  eternity  the  "  Nunc  stans^''  or 
standing  now^  to  distinguish  it  from  the  word  now,  as 
applied  to  time,  and  the  poet  prohably  borrowed  the 
thought  from  them. 

The  scriptural  account,  therefore,  is  of  what  may  be 
called  an  actual  or  proper  creation  of  the  world  out  of 
nothing  which  preexisted,  and  not  the  mere  fashioning 
of  the  different  things  in  the  world  out  of  matter  eternally 
preexisting.  This  latter  was  a  popular  idea  among  the 
mythologists  and  philosophers  of  old.  In  this  Moses  con- 
tradicts them  both,  and  asserts  the  infinite  superiority  of 
Jehovah  over  all  other  powers.  In  all  the  writings  of  the 
philosophers,  and  the  fables  and  allegories  of  the  poets 
and  mythologists,  chaos,  or  water,  or  some  fluid  mass,  is 
often  spoken  of  as  the  basis  from  which  the  great  Mind 
drew  all  things.  Sometimes  it  is  made  itself  an  eternal 
deity,  out  of  whose  womb  all  things  came.  Some  of  the 
philosophers  maintained  that  it  was  impossible  to  create 
anything  out  of  nothing.  The  words  "  Ex  nihil,  niliil 
Jltj'^  or,  "  out  of  nothing,  nothing  comes,"  were  ever  in 
their  mouths,  they  having  no  adequate  conception  of  the 
infinite  power  of  Jehovah.  Thus,  Thales,  one  of  the 
earliest  and  wisest  of  the  Grecian  philosophers,  who  trav- 
elled into  Egypt  in  search  of  knowledge,  maintains  that 
water  was  the  "basis,  or  first  priuciple,  of  all  corj^oreal 
things,"  but  that  "God  was  the  mind  that  formed  all 
things  out  of  it."    The  ocean,  from  whence  all  the  gods 


68  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE    CLASSICS. 

and  men  were  generated,  according  to  the  allegories  of 
tlie  poets,  was  chaos,  out  of  which  the  heavenly  bodies 
were  made.  Adam  himself  came  from  a  portion  of  its 
matter,  and  was  afterwards  worshipped  as  a  god. 

According  to  the  Chaldean  cosmogony,  or  history  of 
creation,  "  all  things  were  darkness,  water,  and  confusion." 
In  the  midst  of  this  chaotic  fluid  existed  various  monsters, 
of  horrible  forms.  At  length  the  hour  of  creation  arrived. 
The  god  Belus  destroyed  the  misshapen  animals  and  a 
gigantic  demon  which  presided  over  them,  divided  the 
darkness  from  the  light,  separated  the  earth  from  the 
heavens,  disposed  the  world  in  regular  order,  and  called 
the  starry  hosts  into  existence.  The  human  s]3ecies  was 
formed,  by  some  inferior  deities,  out  of  the  dust  of  the 
earth  and  waters  of  the  ocean,  and  endowed  with  divine 
reason. 

Some  of  the  above  must  have  come  from  the  descend- 
ants of  Noah,  and  the  rest  added  to  it.  According  to 
Hermes  Trismegistus,  the  Egyptians  held  that  "  In  the 
beginning  there  was  a  boundless  darkness  in  the  abyss, 
but  water  and  an  ethereal  spirit  acted  with  a  divine  power 
in  the  midst  of  chaos.  Then  a  holy  light  shone  forth, 
and  the  elements  were  compacted  together,  with  sand 
of  a  moist  substance.  Then  the  whole  was,  by  all  the 
gods,  compacted  together,  and  distributed  into  proper 
order." 

The  Phcenicians,  according  to  Sanchoniathon,  though 
more  atheistical  than  any  others,  yet  had  something  in 
common  with  Moses.  The  principle  of  our  world  was  a 
dark  air  and  chaos,  and  these  mixed  together  formed  the  ru- 
diments of  all  things  ;  then  appeared  the  sun,  moon,  and 
stars  ;  afterwards,  the  fishes  of  the  sea,  and  the  whole 
finite  creation.  Last  of  all,  two  mortals  were  formed,  the 
parents  of  the  human  race. 

Suidas  tells  us  of  an  old  Tuscan  writer  who  described 


ON  THE   CREATION.  69 

the  creation  in  tlie  same  order  witli  Moses,  only  he  makes 
it  six  thousand  years,  instead  of  six  uatm*al  days.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Persians,  God  created  the  world,  not  in  six 
days,  but  in  six  times,  amounting  in  the  whole  to  one 
year.  According  to  the  Institutes  of  Menu,  which  are 
supposed  to  have  been  written  about  the  time  of  Moses, 
the  Hindostanees  hold  that  the  universe  at  first  existed 
"  only  in  the  divine  idea,  as  yet  unextended."  God  is  there 
represented  as  a  sole  self-existing  power  from  all  eternity, 
but  at  length  shone  forth  in  person.  Determining  to  pro- 
duce various  beings  from  his  own  substance,  he  first,  with 
a  thought,  produced  the  waters,  and  placed  in  them  a 
productive  seed,  which  became  an  egg,  from  which  he 
himself  was  born,  in  the  form  of  Brahma,  the  forefather 
of  all  spirits.  From  the  supreme  soul,  or  spirit,  according 
to  their  system,  emanated  all  things, — mind,  conscious- 
ness, &c.  This  supreme  power  created  a  number  of  infe- 
rior deities,  with  divine  attributes.  It  also  gave  being  to 
time  and  its  divisions,  to  the  stars  and  planets,  to  the 
earth,  and  all  things  in  it.  Having  thus  created  the  uni- 
verse, he  again  retired  into  himself,  from  a  state  of  energy 
to  one  of  repose.  What  is  this,  but  God^s  resting/  on  the 
seventh  day  ? 

The  Chinese  called  their  first  man  Puoneo,  and  said 
that  he  was  born  out  of  chaos — the  famous  egg  of  the 
Eastern  mythology.  From  the  shell  of  the  egg  was 
formed,  in  the  deep  gloom  of  the  night,  the  heavens ; 
from  the  white,  the  atmosphere ;  from  the  yolk,  the 
earth.  Moses  declares  the  same  order — the  heavens  first, 
the  earth  next,  and  then  the  atmosphere. 

Suidas  informs  us  that  a  sage  of  the  Etrurian  nation 
wrote  a  history,  in  which  it  is  said  that  God  created  the 
universe  in  six  thousand  years,  and  that  he  appointed 
the  same  period  of  time  for  its  duration.  In  the  first 
period  he  made  the  heavens  and  the  earth  ;  in  the  second, 


70  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

the  visible  firmament ;  in  tlie  tliircl,  tlie  sea  and  all  the 
waters  in  the  earth  ;  in  the  fourtli,  the  sun,  moon,  and 
stars  ;  in  the  fifth,  all  living  creatures  in  the  sea  and  on 
the  land ;  in  the  sixth,  man  alone. 

As  to  the  Greek  cosmogony,  the  ancient  Orphic  author 
tauo'ht  that  "  In  the  beoinnino;  were  chaos  and  a  thick 
darkness  enveloping  all  things  ;  that  the  earth  lay  for  a 
season  invisible  beneath  the  darkness ;  that  light  then 
burst  forth  ;  that  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  all  came  out  of 
chaos ;  and  that  man  was  formed  out  of  dust,  and  was 
endued  with  a  rational  soul  by  a  supreme  creative  divin- 
ity. The  ancient  poet  Linus  is  said  to  have  asserted  that 
there  was  once  a  time  when  "  all  things  were,  by  nature, 
confusedly  blended  together." 

Hesiod,  the  Greek  poet,  who  is  supposed  to  have  writ- 
ten from  nine  to  twelve  hundred  years  before  the  Chris- 
tian era,  admits  that  chaos  was  the  first  state ;  then  the 
earth  out  of  it ;  and  the  heavens  out  of  the  earth.  He 
also  speaks  of  Jupiter  as  the  king  and  ruler  of  the  immor- 
tal gods,  and  the  creator  of  men  and  all  things.  Homer, 
also,  in  one  place,  makes  Jupiter  the  creator  of  all  things. 
Although  it  is  inconsistent  with  his  account  of  the  birth 
of  Jupiter,  still  it  is  in  accordance  with  the  general  notion 
of  some  supreme  being.  We  must  allow  to  the  poets  and 
painters  unlimited  license. 

"  Pictoribus  atque  poetis,  quid  libet  audendi 
Semper  fuit  equa  potestas." 


TESTIMONIES   OF   THE   ROMANS. 

Although  it  has  been  justly  said  that  tlie  Hebrews 
drank  of  the  fountain,  the  Greeks  of  the  stream,  the  Ro- 
mans of  the  pool,  in  respect  of  knowledge,  yet  can  we 
derive  something  from  the  latter  in  support  of  our  argu- 


ON   THE   CREATION".  Tl 

ment.  Yarro  says,  "Omnia  iioctis  erant" — All  things 
were  night.  Ovid  says,  "  Omnia  pontus  erat " — All  things 
were  sea.  Thus  combining  what  Moses  said,  that  "  dark- 
ness was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep."  But  Ovid  is  ranch 
fuller  upon  the  subject.  The  opening  lines  of  his  Meta- 
morphosis speak  of  a  confused  state  of  things, — eartli,  air, 
water,  all  mixed  up  together: 

"  luem  dixere  chaos." 

His  poetry  seems  only  a  copy  of  Moses'  account,  which, 
as  Ovid  lived  only  a  few  years  before  the  Christian  era, 
must  have  been  well  known  at  Rome.  Ilis  writings  are 
full  of  one  supreme  God,  though,  like  all  the  poets  and 
philosophers,  he  speaks  as  certainly  of  other  gods. 

In  relation  to  the  foregoing  traditions  and  opinions  of 
poets,  historians,  and  philosophers,  only  for  a  moment  let 
us  suppose  that  some  other  than  the  Mosaic  account  had 
been  the  true  one  ;  that  some  philosophical  system,  as  that 
of  the  atheistic  Democritus,  who  thought  the  world  origi- 
nated by  chance,  or  the  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms 
whirling  about  in  one  immense  void  until  they  were 
formed  into  order,  and  that  men,  and  all  other  things, 
were  the  result  of  the  same  process, — and  is  there  any 
one  who,  for  a  moment,  would  think  that  such  agreement 
of  fill  the  nations  or  families  of  the  world  could  have  been 
drawn  from  that  or  any  other  system  ?  Is  not  the  account 
given  by  Moses  the  fountain  and  all  others  the  streams, 
though  corrupted  in  their  passage  through  so  many  ages 
and  so  many  countries? 

It  may  be  well  here  to  allude  to  an  opinion  which  finds 
place  in  many  of  the  ancient  traditions.  AVe  find  in  them 
much  about  a  succession  of  worlds.  The  postdiluvian 
world  was  one  of  these  successions.  Another  is  to  take 
place  after  the  present  world  is  destroyed  by  fii'e.  The 
new  world,  of  which  Moses  spoke  as  growing  out  of  cha- 


72  THE  BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

OS,  was  one  made  of  the  wreck  of  a  former  world.  Chaos 
was  not  created  at  tliat  time,  but  only  refashioned.  It  is 
not  pretended  that  they  knew  how  many  previous  destruc- 
tions and  renewals  there  had  been,  but,  believing  matter 
to  be  eternal,  they  left  that  to  uncertainty.  The  resem- 
blance between  Adam  as  the  father  of  the  old  world,  and 
Noah  as  the  lather  of  the  new, — the  one  in  connection 
with  the  chaos  of  the  first  world,  and  the  other  with  the 
chaos  of  the  deluge, — and  the  fact  that  each  of  them  had 
three  sons  with  whom  to  begin  the  replenishing  of  the 
earth,  strengthened  the  notion  of  a  succession  of  worlds. 
The  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  souls  also  helped  on 
the  doctrine,  and  it  was  believed  that  Noah  and  his  sons 
were  only  the  reappearing  of  Adam  and  his  three  sons', 
Cain,  Abel,  and  Seth,  these  being  the  only  ones  mentioned. 
Messrs.  Faber,  Bryant,  and  other  learned  writers  believe 
this  to  be  the  true  key  to  the  ancient  mythology,  so  far  as 
hero-worship  is  concerned.  There  is  certainly  much  to  be 
said  in  favor  of  the  belief  that  these  were,  in  process  of 
time,  the  chief  objects  of  worship.  The  worship  of  the 
heavenly  bodies  may  have  commenced  earlier,  but  that 
was  soon  blended  with  the  other.  Traditions  prevail  in 
many  nations,  of  the  division  of  the  earth  between  the 
three  sons  of  Noah,  and  their  being  exalted  to  deities; 
but  Homer,  who  has  systematized  the  pagan  mythology, 
and  arranged  the  gods  in  their  proper  order,  has  made  this 
most  clear  and  strikiug. 

He  had  previously  spoken  of  Saturn  and  Rhea,  the  first 
of  the  beings  of  the  earth.  Then  he  makes  Neptune  give 
an  account  of  the  divisions  of  the  earth,  seas,  and  heav- 
ens, between  the  three  sons  : 

"  Three  brother  Deities  from  Saturn  came, 
And  ancient  Ehea,  earth's  immortal  dame. 
Assigned  by  lot — our  triple  rule  we  know  : 
Infernal  Pluto  sways  the  shades  below. 


ON"  THE   CREATION".  73 

O'er  the  wide  clouds,  and  o'er  the  starry  plains, 
Ethereal  Jove  extends  his  wide  domains. 
My  court  beneatli  the  hoary  waves  I  keep, 
And  hush  the  roaring  of  the  sacred  deep. 
Olympus  and  the  earth  in  common  lie." 

Here  we  have  probably  the  origin  of  the  gods.  They 
were  Adam  and  his  three  sons,  as  supposed  to  reappear  in 
Noah  and  his  sons,  the  latter  dividing  the  earth  between 
them;  and  superstition,  or  poetry, sinking  Neptune  in  the 
sea,  banishing  Pluto  to  the  shades,  and  raising  Jupiter  to 
heaven,  and  gradually  investing  him  with  the  attributes 
of  the  great  God  of  all.  All  admit  that  these  three, — Ju- 
piter, Neptune,  and  Pluto, — were  the  great  gods  of  the 
heathen  world,  though  called  by  different  names  ;  and  that 
the  other  gods  are  divided  under  these  into  the  celestial, 
terrestrial,  infernal,  and  oceanic,  all  of  them  meeting 
sometimes  on  the  common  ground  of  the  earth,  which  Ho- 
mer makes  to  belong  to  them  all. 

From  this  digression  on  the  rise  of  idolatry,  into  which 
we  were  led  by  some  of  the  pagan  traditions  as  to  crea- 
tion, we  return  to  the  special  object  of  this  chapter,  which 
was,  to  present  a  brief  sketch  of  the  Mosaic  account  of 
the  six  days  of  creation,  in  connection  with  traditions  to 
be  found  in  ancient  authors. 

The  first  special  act  of  God  was  the  establishment  of 
light,  for  "  the  earth  was  without  form,  and  void,  and. 
darhiess  was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep.  And  God  said, 
Let  there  be  light,  and  there  was  light."*  Some  suppose 
the  light  may  have  been  mingled  in  small  portions  in  cha- 
os, but  was  now  separated,  and  made  to  circulate  around 
the  earth.    After  this,  a  firmament, — the  air, — as  placed  in 

♦Longinusthe  Roman,  in  his  celebrated  treatise  on  the  Sublime,  adduces 
this  as  a  most  remarkable  instance  of  the  sublime  in  composition,  because  of 
the  brevity  with  which  so  mighty  a  work  is  set  forth.  Almighty  power  alone 
could  do  it. 


74  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS, 

the  heavens,  dividing  the  waters  from  the  waters, — that 
is,  the  waters  in  the  clouds  from  those  in  the  deep, — which 
firmament  he  called  heaven.  Then  the  waters  were  gath- 
ered together  in  one  place,  and  the  drj  land  appeared. 
Tlien  the  earth  was  made  to  bring  forth  grass,  and  herbs, 
and  trees.  Then  was  light  distributed  into  the  heavenly 
bodies,  to  give  light  upon  the  earth,  and  to  divide  the  sea- 
sons, the  days,  and  the  years.  Then  were  the  fowls  of  the 
air  and  the  fishes  of  the  sea  created.  Then  were  all 
beasts  and  cattle,  and  every  creeping  thing  on  earth  made  ; 
and  lastly,  man. 

In  relation  to  the  above,  it  is  w^orthy  of  remark, 
First,  that  God  gave  names  to  all  those  things  over 
which  man  had  no  power,  but  permitted  Adam  to  name 
all  the  inferior  animals.  Secondlj^,  not  a  word  is  said 
about  the  creation  or  the  existence  of  angels,  or  any  other 
gods,  with  which  the  pagan  mythologies  are  filled,  and 
which  men  have  been  so  prone  to  worship.  Thirdly,  God 
speaks  of  the  heavenly  bodies, — sun,  moon,  and  stars, — 
and  the  uses  for  wdiich  they  were  designed,  but  not  an  in- 
timation is  given  that  they  were  worthy  of  that  adoration 
which  was  afterwards  given  to  them  by  man.  Fourthly : 
as  it  is  said  that  God  nuide  all  animals,  even  man  himself, 
out  of  earth  or  water,  it  is  not  wonderful  that  so  many 
traditions  should  prevail  as  to  the  origin  of  all  things  out 
of  chaos,  which  was  a  mixture  of  earth  and  water,  and 
that  this  chaos  should  be  considered  as  the  fountain  and 
cause  of  all  things.  Thus  Epicharmus  says,  "All  things 
sprang  out  of  chaos,"  and  therefore  he  calls  chaos  the  first 
of  the  gods.  And  Thales  said  water  was  the  basis  of  all 
things ;  and  even  Plato,  and  Cicero,  with  many  of  the 
philosophers,  said  that  the  earth  was  the  oldest  and  chief 
of  the  gods  wliich  the  great  Supreme  made.  Hesiod  said 
that  all  the  gods  sprung  out  of  old  ocean.  According  to 
his  system,  all  creatures  upon  earth  were  more  or  less 


ON  THE   CREATION.  75 

gods.*  Fifthly :  Moses  says,  after  the  work  of  each  clay 
was  over,  that  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  first, 
or  second  day,  and  so  on  of  all  the  rest.  Now  this  mode 
of  reckoning  runs  throngh  many  ancient  systems,  and  is 
to  be  found  in  many  ancient  histories,  and  is  snpposed  to 
refer  to  the  fact  that  darkness  preceded  light.  It  prevailed 
among  the  Jews  in  the  Saviour's  time  ;  wherefore,  as  he 
remained  three  nights  in  the  grave,  it  is  called  three  days, 
although  he  lay  in  the  grave  only  one  whole  day,  and  a 
part  of  another, — for  on  the  morning  of  the  third  day  he 
had  arisen.  Even  in  our  own  times  the  terms  "  se'nnight" 
and  "  fortnight,"  which,  according  to  Tacitus,  were  used 
by  the  ancient  Gauls,  are  used  to  signify  seven  days  and 
nights,  and  fourteen  days  and  nights. f  Moses  tells  us  that 
God  rested  on  the  seventh  day  from  all  his  work.  The 
institution  of  the  blessed  Sabbath  has  prevailed  and  still 
prevails  among  so  many  nations  of  the  earth,  living  at 
such  a  distance  from  each  other  as  to  space  and  time,  that 
we  are  forced  to  ascribe  it  to  some  early  and  common  or- 
igin. Mr.  Faber  says  that  the  division  of  time  into  weeks, 
prevails  from  the  Christian  states  of  Europe  to  the  remote 
shores  of  Hindostan,  and  has  equally  prevailed  among 
the  Jews  and  Greeks,  the  Romans  and  Goths.  Homer 
and  Hesiod  unite  in  ascribing  to  the  Sabbath  a  peculiar 
sanctity ;    and  Callimachus  aftirms,  that  on  it  all  things 

*Lucan  tells  us,  "Jupiter  est  quod  cunque  rides,  quo  cunque,  moveris  :"  this 
is  the  doctrine  of  pantheists,  ancient  and  modern.  St.  Paul  tells  us,  that  "  in 
God  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being,"  not  that  he  lives,  and  moves,  and 
has  his  being  in  us.  God  has  a  distinct  individual  existence  independent  of  all 
other  things. 

+  The  same  customs,  we  are  informed  by  Caesar,  prevailed  among  the  Celtic 
nations.  "  All  the  Gauls,"  he  says,  "  conceived  themselves  to  be  descended 
from  Father  Dis  (Pluto),  and  they  affirm  it  to  have  been  handed  down  to  them 
by  the  Druids;  for  this  reason  they  measure  time,  not  by  the  number  of  days, 
but  of  nights.  Accordingly  they  observe  their  birthdays,  and  the  beginnings 
of  months  and  years,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  cause  the  day  to  follow  the  night." 
The  polished  Athenians,  according  to  Aulus  Gellius,  .computed  the  space  of  a 
day  from  sunset  to  sunset. 


76  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

were  finished.  In  the  most  barbarous  nations  of  Africa 
they  lay  aside  their  occupations  of  fishing  and  agriculture 
for  purposes  of  worship,  one  day  in  seven. 

To  the  foregoing,  on  the  subject  of  the  order  of  creation, 
I  add  the  following,  from  the  learned  Shuckford,  as  to  the 
opinions  of  some  of  the  ancients.  He  says  that  the  ancient 
heathen  writers  do  not  generally  begin  their  accounts  so 
high  as  the  creation  of  the  heavens  and  the  chaos ;  they 
commonly  go  no  further  back  than  the  formation  of  the 
chaos  into  a  world. 

Anaxagoras  said  that  all  things  were  at  first  in  one 
mass,  but  an  intelligent  being  came  and  put  them  in 
order ;  which  Aristotle  endorses,  adding  that  all  things  lay 
in  one  mass  for  a  vast  space  of  time,  but  an  intelligent, 
agent  came  and  put  them  in  motion,  and  so  separated  them 
one  from  another.  Sanchoniathon,  he  says,  declared  it  was 
"  the  wind  or  the  breath  of  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  which 
brought  all  things  into  order."  This  agrees  with  the  ac- 
count of  Moses,  that  "  the  spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the 
face  of  the  deep."  Shuckford  thinks  that  Thales  is  mis- 
understood, when  he  is  said  to  have  made  water  the  basis 
of  all  things ;  that  by  water  he  meant  only  what  many 
others  did,  "  a  thick  fluid  mass,  or  chaos ;  and  that  Moses 
himself  used  a  word  which,  though  translated  waters, 
meant  chaos,  or  a  fluid  mass."  He  understands  the  Egyp- 
tians and  Greeks  to  have  held  that  "  the  heavens  and  the 
earth  were  at  first  in  one  confused  and  mixed  heap ;  that, 
on  a  separation,  the  lightest  and  most  fiery  parts  flew  up- 
wards and  became  the  lights  of  heaven ;  that  in  time  the 
earth  was  drained  of  water,  and  that  the  moist  clay  of  the 
earth,  enlivened  by  the  heat  of  the  sun,  brought  forth  liv- 
ing creatures  and  men."  In  this  corruption  and  perversion 
of  the  Mosaic  account,  we  can  readily  see  the  remains  of 
ancient  truth.  Mr.  Shuckford  dwells  much  on  Plato's  ac- 
count of  creation.     Plato,  he  eays,  refers  to  ancient  tradi- 


ON   THE   CREATION.  T7 

tion,  and  not  to  philosopliy,  for  the  true  account  of  the  ori- 
gin of  the  world  and  of  man,  and  that  he  speaks  of  Phoeni- 
cian and  Syrian,  that  is,  Hebrew  fables,  as  the  source  of 
their  knowledge  of  these  things ;  that  those  who  lived  nearer 
to  the  gods  were  better  acquainted  with  such  things.  He 
speaks  of  men  as  being  made  of  earth  and  living  in  para- 
dise, and  being  at  first  of  a  double  nature,  male  and  fe- 
male, and  afterwards  divided.  All  these  things  suflS.- 
ciently  agree  with  Moses'  account  to  assure  us  of  a  com- 
mon origin. 

CONCLUDING   KEMAEKS. 

In  the  two  first  verses  of  Genesis  we  are  told  that  God 
created  "  the  heavens  and  the  earth ;  and  that  the  earth 
was  without  form,  and  void."  We  understand  from  this, 
that  all  which  belongs  to  what  is  called  the  heavens  and 
the  earth,  was  created  or  made  by  God ;  and  as  nothing  is 
said  of  any  preexisting  matter,  out  of  which  this  creation 
took  place,  we  believe  that  God  originated  it  out  of  noth- 
ing, as  other  scriptures  clearly  declare.  We  understand, 
by  its  being  "without  form,  and  void,"  that  it  was  in  a 
chaotic  or  confused  state,  and  void  of  trees,  plants,  and 
animals,  and  man  himself,  which  God  afterwards  placed 
in  it.  But  a  question  arises,  how  long  this  state  of  chaos, 
or  "  without  form,  and  void,"  existed,  before  God  brought 
all  things  into  form  or  order,  and  filled  it  with  all  the 
plants  and  animals  mentioned  by  Moses.  Commentators 
among  tlie  Jews,  the  early  fathers  and  more  modern  ones, 
differ  on  this  subject:  very  sound  ones  say  that  there  is 
nothing  in  the  language  of  Moses  requiring  a  belief  that 
the  creation  and  disposition  of  light,  and  the  ordering  of 
all  things,  and  the  peopling  of  the  earth  with  man, 
animals,  and  trees,  took  place  immediately  after  the  crea- 
tion of  the  materials  which  formed  the  chaos ;  that  an  in- 
definite period  may  have  intervened  between  these  acts  of 


78  THE  BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

the  Deity.  Moses,  they  say,  was  not  directed  to  reveal 
anything  concerning  Jehovah's  previous  actings,  as  to  this 
or  any  other  world,  although  the  Eternal  and  Almighty 
Being  must  have  been  ever  at  work. 

Jewish  and  Christian  commentators  have  not  felt  them- 
selves at  liberty  to  speculate  on  the  subject  of  God's  deal- 
ings with  this  planet  before  the  time  with  which  the  his- 
tory of  man  begins,  except  so  far  as  to  acknowledge  the 
fact,  that  numerous  traditions  of  the  heathen  world  refer 
to  the  belief  of  many  successive  creations  and  destructions 
of  this  earth  occurring  during  a  long  previous  period  of 
time,  extending  long  beyond  that  assigned  by  Moses  to 
the  formation  of  our  earth  and  its  inhabitants.  These 
destructions  have  been  ascribed  to  fire  and  water,  which 
brought  such  destruction  upon  the  earth  as  to  require  re- 
newing by  the  Deity.  Connected  with  these  traditions 
have  been  accounts  of  immense  animals  and  monsters, 
which  have  perished,  and  were  not  renewed  with  the  re- 
newal of  other  things.  During  the  present  century  my- 
thologists  have  dwelt  more  on  the  ancient  traditions, 
which  have  chiefly  prevailed  in  the  East;  while  geologists 
have  been  penetrating  into  the  depths  of  the  earth,  to  find 
out  all  that  can  be  discovered,  as  to  the  history  thereof,  in 
the  various  strata  beneath  its  surface,  from  only  a  few  feet 
to  some  miles  into  the  interior.  On  and  near  the  surface 
they  discover  evident  traces  of  men  and  beasts  and  plants, 
such  as  existed  before  and  have  existed  since  the  deluge,  ac- 
cording to  the  Mosaic  account.  But  on  reaching  other  strata, 
lying  deeper  and  deeper  in  the  earth,  while  finding  nothing 
which  belongs  to  man  and  many  things  made  for  his  use, 
they  find  the  remains  and  prints  of  animals  and  plants  of  im- 
mense size,  and  of  a  form  unknown  to  us.  They  infer  from 
hence,  that  they  must  have  existed  before  the  creation  of 
man  and  other  things,  as  related  by  Moses;  and  that,  in  the 
indefinite  period  lying  between  the  arrangement  of  the  earth 


ON  THE   CREATION.  79 

as  it  is  now,  and  the  first  creation  of  its  materials,  it  may 
have  been  the  habitation  of  other  animals  and  other  plants, 
before  man  was  made  to  be  its  proprietor  and  the  present 
races  of  animals  and  plants  w^ere  created  for  his  nse. 

Those  who  adopt  this  theory  are  ready  to  embrace  the 
hypothesis  of  many,  both  ancient  and  modern,  who  think 
that  the  earth  was  once  in  a  heated  state  throughout,  as 
much  of  its  interior  is  still,  and  that  in  the  lapse  of , time 
the  exterior  became  a  crust,  capable  of  sustaining  animals 
and  bearing  trees  of  immense  size.  As  the  tropical  cli- 
mates are  now  suited  to  the  production  of  the  largest  ani- 
mals and  trees,  so  the  whole  earth,  in  its  previous  and 
more  heated  condition,  was  suited  to  those  immense  ani- 
mals whose  fossil  prints  and  skeletons  have  recently  been 
discovered,  also  immense  forests,  which  are  now  believed 
to  be  the  great  coal  mines  of  the  mountains,  and  in  the 
bowels  of  the  earth.  It  is  not  my  intention  to  jDursue  this 
subject  any  further  than  my  subject  calls  for. 

The  scripture  reveals  nothing  concerning  it  in  the  way 
of  history,  but  it  does  prophesy  a  future  destruction  of  the 
earth  by  fire ;  and  the  fact  that  so  much  of  that  element 
and  the  fuel  for  it  is  existing  in  the  earth,  makes  that 
possible  and  probable  which  the  scripture  makes  certain. 
The  numerous  traditions  of  the  ancient  nations  in  relation 
to  previous  destructions  of  the  earth  by  fire  and  water,  the 
discoveries  of  geologists  as  to  great  changes  in  the  interior 
and  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  by  fire  and  water,  render 
it  most  probable  that  previous  to  the  creation  of  man,  and 
other  races  of  animals  for  his  use,  this  earth  had  been  sub- 
ject to  mighty  revolutions,  and  may  have  been  the  habi- 
tation of  gigantic  animals  and  trees  now  no  longer  to  be 
seen  except  in  the  ruins  thereof. 


80  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 


ADDITIONAL   THOUGHTS   AND   TESTIMONIES   ON   THE   SUBJECT 
MATTER   OF   THIS   CHAPTER. 

Sir  Matthew  Hale  says,  "  The  time  and  order  wherein 
the  production  of  light  was,  is  said  to  be  the  first  day. 
What  portion  of  duration  the  disorderly  chaos  had  before 
this  first  production  is  utterly  uncertain,  because  not  re- 
vealed. Possibly  it  might  be  a  very  long  time,  but  the 
perfecting  of  the  world  in  its  formal  order  and  constitu- 
tion seems  to  be  in  the  compass  of  six  natural  days.  He 
could,  in  the  first  moment,  have  produced  the  whole  world, 
but  he  chose  not  to  do  it."  He  says  that  "  Some  Jews  and 
cabalists  thought  the  six  days  of  creation  to  be  of  differ- 
ent length  from  our  days,  and  from  each  other ;  that  the 
language  of  Moses  was  only  a  kind  of  analogical  expres- 
sion to  give  the  order  of  the  production  of  all  things,  and 
not  the  precise  time  required."  Sir  Matthew  thinks  that 
the  period  of  chaos  was  a  long  one,  during  which  the 
spirit  of  God,  as  a  powerful  agent,  was  moving  on  the 
face  of  the  waters, — that  is,  of  chaos, — separating  and  dis- 
posing all  things  for  the  time  when  he  should  put  them 
in  form  and  order  during  six  natural  days.  He  is  afraid 
of  the  theory  of  long  indefinite  periods,  lest  it  should 
ascribe  too  much  to  a  natural,  and  intimate  a  doubt  as  to 
God's  ability  to  work  by  his  own  independent  power,  in 
days  or  moments,  as  well  as  in  ages  or  more  immense 
periods  of  time.  The  modern  doctrine  of  some  of  our 
most  learned  and  pious  men  was  held,  it  seems,  by  some 
of  the  ancients,  among  the  Jews  as  well  as  Gentiles. 

Professor  Lewis,  in  his  learned  work  on  "The  Bible 
and  Science,"  says  as  to  this  doctrine  of  the  antiquity  of 
the  earth's  material,  that  "  it  was  an  ancient  speculation, 
philosophical  as  well  as  traditional  and  poetical ;  that  in 
modern  times  the  thought  had  slumbered  until  geology 


0]Sr   THE   CREATION.  81 

had  again  awakened  it."  As  to  many  things  in  connec- 
tion with  it,  he  says,  "They  were  discussed  by  the  ancient 
mind  with  a  keenness  that  modern  philosophy  fails  to 
equal."  He  thinks  that  Hesiod  has  the  germ  of  this  idea 
of  long  periods,  and  Yirgil  may  refer  to  them  in  his 
"  Magni  Menses,"  and  "  Magnus  Sseclorum  Ordo,"  when 
speaking  of  the  Sibylline  verses.  In  his  "  Six  Days  of 
Creation,"  he  adduces  in  proof  of  our  great  poet's  cosmog- 
ony these  lines  in  reference  to  chaos — 

"  As  yet  the  world  was  not,  and  chaos  wild 
Reigned  where  these  heavens  now  I'oll,  where  earth  now  rests" — 

calling  it 

"  The  womb  of  nature,  and  perhaps  her  grave ; 
The  dark  materials  to  create  more  worlds, 
By  God  ordained  " — 

while  the  spirit  of  God 

"  Dove-like  sat  brooding  o'er  the  vast  abyss." — Milton. 

Herodotus,  the  most  ancient  of  all  historians  whose 
works  have  come  down  to  us  except  Moses,  and  who  had 
gathered  in  his  extensive  travels  the  traditions  of  the  oldest 
nations,  bears  testimony  to  this  view  of  the  antiquity  of 
earth's  materials. 

Eawlinson  says,  "Herodotus  perceives  the  operation 
of  the  two  agencies  of  fire  and  water  in  bringing  the 
earth  to  its  actual  condition.  He  regards  the  changes  as 
having  occupied  enormous  periods  of  time — tens  of  thou- 
sands of  years." — Itawlinson^s  Herodotus,  vol.  1,  p.  91. 

Mr.  Faber  says  of  the  words  "  In  the  beginning,"  it, 
the  Hebrew  original,  is  more  explicit  than  our  common 
English  translation,  for  the  literal  version  of  it  runs 
as  follows :  "In  the  beginning  God  created  the  very 
substance  of  the  heavens  and  the  very  substance  of 
6 


82  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

the  earth,"  which  he  understands  to  include  the  mate- 
rial heavenly  bodies.  But  he  adds,  "  Prior  to  the  work 
of  the  six  days,  as  the  researches  of  geology  seem-  fully 
to  have  established,  a  series  of  great  mundane  changes, 
in  the  progressive  organization  of  this  globe  out  of  the 
primevally  created  matter,  had  long  been  occurring, 
which  all  manifestly  tended  to  perfection,  each  change 
successively  tending  to  the  final  completion  of  a  man- 
sion or  permanent  dwelling,  suitable  to  the  abode  of 
sentient  and  intelligent  beings."  Mr.  Faber  admits  the 
evidences  of  certain  monsters  in  some  of  these  changes, 
and  even  indulges  the  fancy  that  this  earth  may,  in  one 
of  its  best  conditions,  have  been"  the  abode  of  the  angels 
who  fell,  and  who  are  now  hovering  around  it  with  evil 
intent,  and  destined,  in  the  future,  to  some  subten-anean 
abode  of  misery.  This  of  course  is  all  speculation ;  and 
as  his  work,  "  Many  Mansions  in  the  House  of  our  Father," 
is  the  child  of  his  old  age,  as  he  calls  it,  being  written 
only  a  few  years  before  his  death,  we  must  not  be  severe 
in  our  judgments,  especially  as  the  theory  can  neither  be 
proved  or  disproved — the  scripture  not  affirming  or  deny- 
ing it — and  since  such  a  man  as  Bishop  Horseley,  whom  he 
greatly  admired,  indulged  his  fancy  so  much  in  relation 
to  the  interior  of  our  earth,  and  so  many  pious  and  learned 
men  are  so  positive  in  a  belief  in  which  Mr.  Faber  agreed 
with  them,  that  this  earth,  when  purified  by  fire,  and 
covered  with  a  pure,  healthful,  and  fertile  soil,  is,  one 
day  and  forever,  to  be  the  blissful  abode  of  the  saints, 
with  the  incarnate  Saviour  as  their  king. 

Among  those  who  have  most  zealously  argued  in  favor 
of  the  opinion  that  this  earth  is  to  be  the  future  habita- 
tion of  the  saints,  must  be  mentioned  Professor  Hitchcock, 
President  of  Amherst  College,  who,  in  his  learned  and 
deeply  interesting  work  on  the  religion  of  geology,  has 
given  us  his  own  views  and  those  of  such  men  as  Chal- 


ON  THE   CREATION.  83 

mei'S,  Pye  Smitli,  and  others  of  high  standing  in  the  theo- 
logical and  geological  world. 

Chalmers  says,  "  The  common  imagination  that  we 
have  of  paradise  on  the  other  side  of  death,  is  that  of  a 
loftj  serial  region,  where  the  inmates  float  in  aether,  or 
are  mysteriously  suspended  on  nothing;  where  all  the 
warm  and  sensible  accompaniments,  which  give  such  an 
expression  of  strength  and  life  and  coloring  to  our  pres- 
ent habitation,  are  attenuated  into  a  sort  of  spiritual  ele- 
ment that  is  meagre  and  imperceptible,  and  utterly  unin- 
viting to  the  eye  of  mortals  here  below ;  where  every 
vestige  of  materialism  is  done  away,  and  nothing  left  but 
certain  unearthly  scenes  that  have  no  power  or  allurement, 
and  certain  unearthly  ecstasies  with  which  it  is  felt  to  be 
impossible  to  sympathize." 

The  general  result  of  the  reasoning  of  those  who  advo- 
cate this  theory,  sustaining  it  by  many  passages  of  scripture 
which  they  cannot  think  to  be  figurative,  is,  that  it  seems 
to  them  favorable  to  piety  and  promotive  of  faith  to  bring 
our  future  abode  as  near  as  possible  to  the  present,  and 
our  future  condition  as  near  to  that  of  earth  as  may  con- 
sist with  the  perfection  of  happiness  and  holiness,  and  not 
to  send  us,  as  an  altogether  new  race  of  beings,  into  some 
distant  spot  of  creation.  They  reason  as  we  do  in  behalf 
of  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  viz :  That  it  unites  this 
life  and  the  next  more  closely  when  we  know  that  in 
these  bodies  we  shall  be  raised  up — although  improved  and 
glorified ;  that  we  shall  feel  that  we  are  continuous  beings ; 
that  om*  future  condition  will  much  depend  upon  our 
present  conduct.  But  however  this  theory  may  prove, 
true  or  false,  it  seems  to  be  generally  agreed  that  we  can- 
not turn  into  figure  or  allegory  the  many  passages  of 
scripture  which  speak  of  the  present  heavens  passing 
away  with  a  great  noise,  and  the  elements  melting  with 
fervent  heat,  and  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  wherein 


84  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

dwelletli  rigliteoTisness,  being  prepared  for  us  here  or  else- 
wliere.  ISTor  can  it  be  cpiestioned  tliat  there  is  much  in 
ancient  tradition  favoring  the  idea  of  the  dead,  after  a 
long  interval,  returning  to  this  earth,  and  being  con- 
nected with  some  new  bodies. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ON     THE     CREATION     OF     MAN. 

Gn  the  sixth  day  of  creation,  every  thing  else  being 
done,  God  said,  "  Let  us  make  man  in.  our  image,  after 
our  likeness."  So  "  God  created  man  in  his  own  image. 
In  the  image  of  God  created  he  him.  Male  and  female 
created  he  them." 

The  particulars  of  the  manner  in  which  our  first  parents 
were  formed  are  also  stated  in  the  second  chapter  of  the 
book  of  Genesis.  "  And  the  Lord  God  formed  man  of 
the  dust  of  the  ground,  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the 
breath  of  life,  and  man  became  a  living  soul."  And 
the  Lord  God  said,  "  It  is  not  good  that  man  should  be 
alone  ;  I  will  make  him  an  help  meet  for  him.  And  the 
Lord  God  caused  a  deep  sleei?  to  fall  upon  Adam,  and  he 
slept.  And  he  took  one  of  his  ribs,  and  closed  up  the 
flesh  thereof.  And  the  rib,  which  the  Lord  God  had 
taken  from  man,  made  he  a  woman,  and  brought  her  unto 
the  man."  Scarcely  had  our  first  father  time  to  feel  the 
loneliness  of  his  condition,  before  God  instituted  that 
relation  which  has  ever  been  felt  to  be 

"  Best  bliss  of  Paradise  wliicli  has  survived  the  fall." 

Looking  upon  them,  and  upon  all  the  creatures  which 
he  had  made  for  their  use,  over  whom  he  had  given 
them  dominion,  and  upon  all  else  which  he  had  made 
in  heaven  and  earth,  he  pronounced  them  not  only  good^ 
but  very  good. 


86  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

And  here  we  cannot  but  pause  to  say,  how  different 
this  declaration  from  the  doctrine  of  many  of  the  ancients, 
who  held  that  there  were  two  eternally  existing  principles, 
the  one  of  good,  the  other  of  evil,  who  were  concerned 
in  the  formation  of  men,  and  the  creation  of  all  other 
things ;  whereby  it  came  to  j)ass  that  there  was  a  mixture 
of  good  and  evil,  pleasure  and  pain,  beauty  and  deformity, 
in  all  things  ;  or  else  that  there  was  something  stubborn 
and  malignant  in  matter,  out  of  which  men  and  all  things 
were  fashioned,  which  hindered  the  Almighty  Architect 
from  doing  a  more  perfect  work.  "  Kon  potest  artifex 
mutare  materiam,"  said  Seneca.  According  to  Moses, 
God  complains  of  no  such  thing.  Both  the  material  out 
of  which  they  were  made,  and  the  creatures  made,  were 
the  work  of  his  hands. 

Between  cause  and  effect,  the  Creator  and  creature,  we 
naturally  and  reasonably  expect  to  see  a  resemblance, 
and  that  the  Author  should  impress  something  of  his 
own  character  and  image  on  his  work.  "  The  heavens 
declare  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  firmament  showeth 
his  handy  work."  God  is  known  by  all  his  works. 
Man  stands  confessedly  the  first  of  all  upon  earth.  This 
we  might  expect  from  the  remarkable  language  used  at 
his  formation. 

God  said  "  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our 
likeness.  So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image.  In  the 
image  of  God  created  he  him."  In  these  few  words,  the 
terms  image  and  likeness  are  used,  in  relation  to  God's 
purpose  and  work  as  to  man.  If  there  was  any  doubt 
concerning  the  main  points  of  resemblance  between  God 
and  man,  as  man  was  first  formed,  an  inspired  apostle 
tells  us  it  was  "  in  knowledge  and  holiness."  In  other 
respects  also,  he  was  like  unto  God.  He  was  lord  of  this 
lower  world,  having  dominion  over  the  beasts  of  the  field 
and  the  fowls  of  the  air.     His  person  was  noble  and  com- 


ON"  THE   CREATION"   OF   MAN.  87 

manding  above  that  of  all  other  beings.  ^  God  made  him 
upright  in  body  as  well  as  soul ;  perfect  in  his  kind.  It 
should  elevate  and  sanctify  our  thoughts  to  know  that 
when  God  determined  to  manifest  himself  upon  earth  in 
the  person  of  his  Son,  he  chose  the  nature  and  form,  not 
of  some  angel  or  archangel,  but  of  man,  becoming  very 
man  (as  to  "  body  and  soul  ")  as  well  as  very  God^  appear- 
ing in  the  truth  of  our  mortal  nature,  though  the  ful- 
ness of  the  Godhead  dwelt  bodily  in  him.  Yea,  more ; 
we  are  assured  that  he  will  retain  the  same,  though  glori- 
fied and  exalted,  as  king  of  saints  in  heaven  forevermore. 
And  even  before  the  incarnation  at  Bethlehem  he  often 
appeared  in  the  human  form  to  some  of  his  ancient 
people. 

If  thus  honored  as  to  body,  how  much  more  as  to  soul, 
which  was  not  made  out  of  the  dust,  but  breathed  into 
us  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  In  respect  to  the  immortal 
soul,  and  its  great  capacities  and  noble  affections,  it  is 
said  that  "  man  is  only  a  little  lower  than  the  angels." 
"  Winged  to  fly  at  infinite,  and  find  it  there,  where 
seraphs  gather  immortality,"  to  what  heights  may  he 
not  soar,  I'ising  from  glory  to  glory,  from  angel  to  arch- 
angel. "VVe  must  believe  that  as  man  came  from  his 
Maker's  hands,  his  faculties  and  affections  and  appetites 
were  all  rightly  directed,  and  duly  subordinate  one  to 
another  and  to  God,  and  only  required  to  be  duly  culti- 
vated and  governed  and  exercised. 

How  happy  must  our  first  parents  have  been,  thus 
divinely  constituted,  loving  God  and  each  other !  It  is 
not  too  much  to  say  of  him,  with  the  great  dramatist, 
abating  somewhat  of  its  jjagan  cast : 

"  What  a  piece  of  work  is  man ; 
How  noble  in  reason ! 
How  infinite  in  faculties ! 
In  form  and  moving,  liow  express  and  admirable ! 


e8  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

In  action,  bow  like  an  angel ! 

In  apprehension,  how  like  a  god ! 

The  beauty  of  the  world  ;  the  paragon  of  animals." 

— Shakspeaee. 

Or  might  we  not  address  one  of  tins  favored  race  in 
tlie  language  of  a  more  chaste  and  sacred  poet,  and  say  : 

"  Think  deeply  then,  O  man,  how  great  thou  art ; 
Pay  thyself  homage  with  a  trembling  heart. 
"What  angels  guard,  no  longer  dare  neglect ; 
Slightiug  thyself,  aftront  not  God's  respect. 
Enter  the  sacred  temple  of  thy  breast, 
And  gaze  and  wander  there  a  ravished  guest. 
Gaze  on  those  hidden  treasures  thou  shalt  find ; 
Wander  through  all  the  glories  of  thy  mind. — Dr.  Yoiing. 

If  any  should  say  these  are  proud  words  and  vain,  to 
be  spoken  of  such  a  creature  as  sinful,  fallen  man,  we  re- 
ply, that  we  ought  to  think  of  what  he  was,  and  might 
still  have  been,  and  yet  may  be,  through  the  redemption 
wrought  out  for  him.  We  should  remember  what  may 
yet  be  seen : 

"  The  glorious  fragments  of  a  soul  immortal, 
"With  rubbish  mix'd  and  glittering  in  the  dust." 

It  has  been  justly  said, 

"  His  nature  no  man  can  overrate, 
Nor  underrate  his  merit." 

With  such  exalted  natures,  and  the  high  advantage  of 
intercourse  with  God,  our  first  parents,  happy  in  each 
other's  love,  were  placed  in  the  choicest  part  of  the  earth, 
and  in  the  choicest  s])0t  of  the  same. 

The  garden  of  Eden,  in  the  land  of  Eden,  is  generally 
supposed  to  have  been  in  Armenia,  one  of  the  healthiest, 
most  fertile,  and  picturesque  parts  of  Asia  ;  where  human 
nature  has  ever  been  seen  in  highest  perfection  of  body  and 


ON  THE   CREATION   OF  MAN.  89 

mind.  Tlie  fair  Circassian  has  long  dwelt  in  that  land,  who, 
for  complexion  and  form,  is  the  pnrest  type  of  humanity. 
The  nations  which  have  issued  from  that  region,  journey- 
ing and  settling  along  the  range  of  mountains  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  have,  as  history  will  testify,  been 
the  most  celebrated  in  mind  and  person  of  all  others. 
It  was  meet  that  God  should  choose  such  a  region  (so 
auspicious  for  the  continued  excellence  of  the  race)  for 
the  first  pair  and  their  descendants. 

Can  we  otherwise  than  suppose  that  God  put  forth  his 
love  and  power  in  making  them  the  most  perfect  speci- 
mens of  the  race,  and  that  there  is  truth  in  the  poet's 
description, — 

"  Adam,  the  goodliest  of  men  since  born 
His  sons.     The  fairest  of  her  daughters  Eve  "  ? 

On  this  subject  we  have  more  to  say  when  treating  of 
the  garden  of  Eden. 

"All  things  were  here  given  them  richly  to  enjoy." 
They  were  required  indeed  to  dress  it, — that  is,  to  culti- 
vate it :  but  it  was  "  labor  itself  a  pleasure" — "  Labor  ipse 
voluptas."  Fruits  and  flowers,  good  for  food,  and  beau- 
tiful to  the  eye,  abounded  in  it.  Inferior  animals  were 
the  objects  of  their  care  and  love ;  and  doubtless  they 
returned  this  love. 

To  love  and  obey  him  who  made  them  and  thus  blessed 
them,  was  their  duty  and  happiness.  But  even  in  a  state 
of  innocence,  in  paradise,  self-denial  was  necessary,  for 
they  w^ere  in  a  state  of  probation,  and  might  lose  the 
favor  of  God.  One  test  of  obedience  was  appointed. 
One  only,  of  all  the  trees  of  the  garden,  bore  forbidden 
"fruit.  "  In  the  day  thou  eatest  thereof  thou  shalt  surely 
die,"  that  is,  lose  my  favor,  and  be  subject  to  death  when- 
ever the  penalty  shall  be  required.  The  sad  sequel  I 
need  not  mention  now. 


90  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

Tlie  circumstances  and  tlie  temptation  I  reserve  for 
another  cliapter.  All  that  I  shall  say  in  this  place  is, 
that  God's  favor  was  lost  through  disobedience,  and  sin 
entered  into  the  world.  At  what  period,  after  the  crea- 
tion of  man  and  his  entrance  into  the  garden  of  Eden, 
man  sinned  and  was  banished  from  this  blissful  abode,  it 
is  not  for  us  to  know.  We  cannot  suppose  that  it  was 
immediately  after  their  creation,  or  that  the  act  of  trans- 
gression was  committed  under  a  surprise,  ignorantly,  or 
fogetfully.  They  were  on  trial,  and  had  a  full  view  of  the 
consequences  of  disobedience,  so  far  as  losing  the  favor  of 
God  is  concerned.  Their  consciences  must  have  been  ex- 
ercised. They  were  tempted,  and  yielded  ;  it  was  not 
accidental.  That  God  who  knows  how  to  have  compas- 
sion on  the  ignorant,  and  has  made  provision  for  sins  of 
ignorance,  would  not  have  visited  them  and  their  pos- 
terity so  heavily  for  an  accidental  or  unavoidable  trans- 
gression. Many  a  time  may  our  first  parents  have 
looked  upon  that  forbidden  fruit  and  been  tempted  to 
eat  thereof,  but  were  faithful  and  obedient,  and  turned 
away  from  it.  At  length  their  resolution  failed ;  they  dis- 
obeyed, and  forfeited  God's  favor.  But  we  have  reason 
to  believe  that  the  favor  was  regained,  by  faith  in  the 
promised  Deliverer,  and  sincere  repentance  and  an  holy 
life,  during  the  long  period  to  which  the  days  of  Adam 
were  prolonged. 

The  pious  Montgomery,  in  his  interesting  poem,  en- 
titled "  The  World  before  the  Flood,"  thus  describes  our 
penitent  forefather : 

"  With  him  our  noblest  sons  might  not  compare, 
In  godlike  features  and  majestic  air. 
Not  out  of  weakness  rose  his  gradual  frame, 
Perfect  from  his  Creator's  hand  he  came  ; 
And,  as  in  form  excelling,  so  in  mind 
The  sire  of  men  transcended  all  mankind. 


ON   THE   CREATION   OF   MAN.  91 

But  deep  remorse  for  that  mysterious  crime 
Whose  dire  contagion,  through  elapsing  time, 
Diffused  the  curse  of  death  beyond  control, 
Had  wrought  such  self-abasement  in  his  soul, 
That  he,  whose  honors  were  approached  by  none, 
Was  yet  the  meekest  man  beneath  the  sun. 
He  walked  so  humbly  in  the  sight  of  all, 
The  vilest  ne'er  reproached  him  with  his  fall." 

From  these  general  remarks  on  tlie  creation  and  fall 
of  man,  we  proceed,  according  to  tlie  plan  of  our  work, 
to  sliow  liow  the  main  points  of  the  Mosaic  narrative  are 
sustained  by  the  traditions  of  other  nations,  and  the  opin- 
ions of  the  philosophers. 

Beginning  with  Plato,  who  always  endeavored  to  find 
out  the  earliest  traditions  concerning  the  creation,  we 
find  him  saying  that  "  Our  human  nature  was  not  of  old 
what  it  now  is,  but  different  from  it.  For  at  first  there 
were  three  sorts  of  human  beings,  not  two  only,  as  now, 
male  and  female ;  but  of  the  third  sort  nothing  now  re- 
mains but  the  name.  This  was  common,  and  made  up 
of  the  two  others.  But  at  length  Jupiter  determined 
to  divide  this  hermaphroditic  being  into  two,  and  the 
consequence  was,  that  the  one  severed  half  ever  had  a 
longing  desire  for  the  other." 

Who  can  refuse  to  trace  this  ancient  tradition  to  the 
foraiation  of  woman  out  of  man,  and  which  must  have 
come  down,  not  only  through  Moses,  but  through  other 
channels  ? 

Mr.  Faber,  and  other  writers  on  mythology,  have  col- 
lected various  passages  from  the  most  ancient  books,  in 
relation  to  the  four  ages.  They  relate  to  two  series  of 
ages — one  before,  the  other  after  the  flood,  though  the 
two  are  sometimes  mingled  together.  It  is  easy  how- 
ever to  perceive  when  the  reference  is  to  the  Golden 
age  of  the  first  series — the  age  of  innocence  and  happi- 


92  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

ness  in  paradise.  The  great  father  alluded  to  in  these 
passages  was  Chroniis,  or  Saturn,  in  the  Western  "world, 
and  Menu  in  the  Eastern  world,  each  of  whom  was  none 
other  than  Adam,  or  ISToah. 

Plato  informs  us  that  the  first  inhabitants  lived  upon 
the  spontaneous  fruits  of  the  earth,  which  was  very  fer- 
tile ;  that  they  conversed,  not  only  with  God,  but  with 
the  inferior  domestic  animals  ;  that  these  things  had  come 
down  from  an  ancient  fable ;  that  our  forefathers  who 
lived  immediately  after  the  first  revolution, — that  is,  the 
deluge, — had  delivered  these  things ;  that  the  depravity 
of  man  began  at  the  close  of  the  golden  age. 

The  ancient  mode  of  living  among  the  Greeks  is  thus 
described  by  Dicearchus,  according  to  Porphyry  :  "  The 
first  men  lived  near  to  the  gods,  and  were  of  a  most  excel- 
lent nature,  and  lived  most  holy  lives.  At  that  time  noth- 
ing that  had  life  was  slaughtered ;  and,  from  the  felicity 
that  then  prevailed,  the  poets  have  drawn  their  pictures 
of  the  golden  age."  This,  he  says,  was  the  age  of  Chronus, 
or  Saturn, — that  is,  Adam. 

Hesiod's  account  of  the  golden  age  accords  with  the 
foregoing :  "  When  gods  and  mortal  men  were  born 
together,  the  golden  age  commenced — the  precious  gift  of 
the  deities,  who  acknowledged  Chronus  as  their  sovereign. 
Mankind  then  led  the  life  of  gods,  free  from  tormenting 
cares,  and  exempt  from  labor  or  sorrow ; — old  age  was  un- 
known ;  their  limbs  were  braced  with  a  perpetual  vigor, 
and  the  evils  of  disease  were  unknown.  When  at  length 
the  hour  of  dissolution  arrived,  death  assumed  the  mild 
aspect  of  sleep,  and  laid  aside  all  its  terrors.  Every  bless- 
ing was  their  own;  the  fruits  of  the  earth  sprang  up 
spontaneously  and  abundantly.  Peace  reigned,  and  her 
companions  were  happiness  and  pleasure." 

The  manner  in  which  he  accounts  for  this  change  is 
also  striking.    "  The  first  woman,  endowed  by  the  gods 


ON  THE   CREATION   OF  MAN,  93 

witli  every  accomplisliinent,  yet  destined  to  be  tlie  ruin 
of  prying  man,  opened  a  fatal  casket,  and  let  out  sorrows 
and  calamities  incalculable.  Too  late,  wlien  her  mis- 
chievous curiosity  was  satisfied,  she  replaced  the  lid,  but 
sea  and  land  were  alike  replete  with  evil.  Hope  alone 
remained  at  the  bottom  of  the  casket." 

The  traditions  of  the  Hindoos  are  to  the  same  effect. 
They  speak  of  the  first  of  the  human  race  as  "  The  su- 
preme and  happy  inhabitants  of  the  earth.  The  first  age 
was  called  the  age  of  perfection.  There  was  no  fraud  or 
extortion ;  every  heart  glowed  with  gratitude  to  the  su- 
preme Creator.  Tlie  gods  frequently  became  incarnate, 
and  held  personal  intercourse  with  mortals,  and  told  them 
of  a  celestial  region  into  which  they  were  to  be  translated 
when  their  earthly  probation  was  over.  But,  owing  to 
luxurious  abundance,  men  became  corrupt,  and  fell  into 
all  kinds  of  wickedness,  insomuch  that  Jupiter,  disgusted 
with  the  scene,  abolished  the  ancient  order  of  things, 
and  permitted  the  necessaries  of  life  to  be  obtained  only 
through  the  medium  of  labor."  The  Silver  and  Brazen 
ages  then  came  on,  when  men  were  called  "  The  moder- 
ately happy,"  and  then  "  The  least  haj)py  inhabitants  of 
the  world." 

The  Cliinese  speak  of  two  heavens,  which  is  supposed 
to  refer  to  the  state  of  men  before  the  fall,  and  after  the 
delnge.  During  the  first,  a  "pure  pleasure,  a  perfect 
tranquillity  reigned  over  all  nature.  There  was  neither 
labor,  nor  pain,  nor  sorrow,  nor  criminality.  Nothing 
made  opposition  to  the  will  of  man.  The  whole  creation 
enjoyed  a  state  of  happiness.  Every  thing  was  beautifuL 
Every  thing  was  good.  All  beings  were  perfect  in  their 
kind."  In  this  happy  age  "  Heaven  and  earth  employed 
their  virtues  jointly  to  embellish  nature.  There  was  no 
jarring  in  the  elements;  no  inclemency  in  tlie  air.  All 
things  grew  without  labor,  and  universal  fertility  prevailed. 


94  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

The  active  and  passive  virtues  conspired  together  to  pro- 
duce and  perfect  the  universe."  But  when  the  second 
heaven  is  mentioned,  tliey  say  "  The  earth  fell  to  pieces. 
The  waters  which  were  enclosed  in  its  bosom  burst  forth 
with  violence  and  overflowed  it,  Man,  having  rebelled 
against  Heaven,  the  system  of  the  universe  was  totally 
disordered."  All  these  evils,  they  say,  arose  from  man's 
despising  the  Monarch  of  the  universe.  "  He  would  need 
dispute  about  truth  and  falsehood  ;  and  these  disputes  ban- 
ished the  Eternal  reason.  He  then  fixed  his  looks  on  ter- 
restrial objects,  and  loved  them  to  excess.  Hence  arose 
the  passions.  He  gradually  became  transformed  into  the 
object  which  he  loved;  and  the  Celestial  wisdom  entirely 
abandoned  him.  Such  was  the  source  of  all  his  crimes, 
and  hence  arose  those  various  miseries  which  are  justly 
sent  by  Heaven  as  a  punishment  of  wickedness." — See 
Kamsey  on  the  Mijthology  of  the  Pagans. 

From  this  garbled  account  of  the  golden  age,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  it  is  sometimes  placed  during  the  state  of  inno- 
cence in  paradise,  and  sometimes  as  coming  down  after  it, 
and  sometimes  as  being  after  the  deluge.  We  may  fairly 
conclude  that  there  was  a  period,  both  after  the  fall  of 
man  and  after  the  deluge,  when  comparative  innocence 
prevailed. 

The  Zendivester  of  the  Persians  also  furnishes  a  corrob- 
oration of  the  foregoing.  Although  this  book,  as  it  has 
been  handed  down,  is  of  doubtful  authorship  and  author- 
ity, yet  the  most  learned  agree  that  it  contains  much  of 
ancient  tradition,  fragments  of  which  were  worked  into  it. 
Such  is  the  opinion  of  Sir  William  Jones,  and  Mr.  Faber. 
The  Persians  held,  according  to  these,  that  the  world  was 
created  in  six  diiierent  periods  of  time,  in  the  last  of  which 
man  was  formed  by  the  immediate  hand  of  God.  Much 
happiness  for  a  time  prevailed ;  but  an  evil  one,  Ahriman, 
after  having  dared  to  visit  heaven,  descended  to  the  earth, 


ON  THE   CREATION   OF  MAN.  95 

assumed  the  form  of  a  serpent,  and  brought  along  with 
him  a  number  of  wicked  demons.  The  whole  world  was 
corrupted  and  thrown  into  confusion,  until  it  was  necessary 
to  bring  a  deluge  of  waters  to  purify  it. 

Ancient  books  of  Ilindostan,  according  to  Mr.  Faber, 
relate  that  "  At  the  beo-innins  of  the  world  numerous  ce- 
lestial  spirits  were  formed,  capable  of  perfection,  but  with 
the  power  of  imperfection,  both  depending  on  tlieir  vol- 
untary choice."  This  could  not  have  been  borrowed  from 
Moses,  as  he  makes  no  mention  of  angels,  either  good  or 
bad,  in  his  history  of  creation  and  the  first  years  of  Adam 
and  Eve.  It  must  therefore  have  come  from  some  other 
source,  even  from  most  ancient  tradition. 

opmioNS  or  philosophees  ajstd  poets. 

Simplicius,  in  his  Comment  on  Epictetus,  advances  a 
similar  opinion,  saying  that  God,  in  order  to  fill  the  world 
with  beings,  made  some  (the  angels)  immutably  good  ;  and 
some  of  a  middle  nature  liable  to  be  perverted,  but  hav- 
ing great  powers  and  good  aflections ;  also  inferior  orders, 
that  so  the  universe  might  be  perfect  in  having  all  sorts  of 
beings  in  it. 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  among  ancient  philosophers, 
as  well  as  modern  divines,  the  cause  of  man's  fall  was  a 
matter  of  discussion.  '  Fate,'  '  necessity,'  and  '  free-will ' 
were  terms  as  much  used  among  them,  as  '  predestination' 
and  the  '  self-determining  power '  are  among  us.  Perhaps 
our  first  parents  may  have  discussed  them,  and  even  im- 
agined that  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  would  give 
some  insight  into  these.  Milton  represents  some  of  tiie 
fallen  angels  as  investigating  these  points : 

"  Others  apart  sat  on  a  hill  retired, 
In  thought  more  elevate,  and  reasoned  high 
Of  Providence,  fore-knowledge,  free-will,  and  fate : 


96  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

Fixed  fate,  free-will,  fore-knowledge,  absolute, 
And  found  no  end,  in  wandering  mazes  lost." 

The  pliilosopliers,  on  the  origiu  of  evil,  have  been  com- 
pared to  the  ancient  Egyptians,  who  all  witnessed  the 
overflowing  of  the  Nile,  but  for  a  long  time  could  not  find 
out  the  cause  or  spring-head  of  it. 

"  Causa  latet,  vis  est  notissima." 

Porphyry  says,  "Let  us  at  least  join  with  our  forefa- 
thers in  lamenting  this,  that  we  are  compounded  of  such 
disagreeing  and  contrary  principles,  that  we  are  not  able 
to  preserve  divine,  pure,  and  unspotted  innocency." 

Hierocles  more  fully  declares  it.  "  The  most  men  in  the 
world  are  bad,  and  under  the  command  of  their  passions, 
and  are  grown  impotent  through  their  propensity  to  earth, 
which  great  evil  they  have  brought  upon  themselves  by 
their  wilful  apostasy  from  God,  and  withdrawing  them- 
selves from  that  society  with  him  which  they  once  enjoyed 
in  pure  light." 

Plato  seems  much  puzzled  to  give  a  satisfactory  account 
of  evil,  but  he  approaches  so  much  nearer  to  the  Mosaic 
account  though  still  at  a  great  distance,  that  some  have 
supposed  that,  in  his  travels  to  the  East,  he  had  met  either 
with  the  Hebrew  scriptures  or  with  the  Jewish  doctors, 
and  had  borrowed  something  from  them.  According  to 
the  learned  Cudworth,  Plato  held  that  "  Matter  being  eter- 
nal, and  emanating  from  the  supreme  First  Cause,  was  di- 
vested of  all  qualities  which  could  produce  evil ;  and  he 
accounted  for  evil  by  ascribing  it  to  a  third  unmade  princi- 
ple, between  God  and  matter,  calling  it  an  irrational  soul, 
or  demon,  which  moved  matter  disorderly."  Plato  held 
that  it  is  impossible  that  evils  should  be  entirely  destroyed  ; 
and  yet  they  are  not  seated  among  the  gods,  but  will  of 
necessity  always  infest  this  mortal  region  and  nature. 
Wherefore  he  says  we  ought  to  endeavor  to  flee  from 


ON  THE   CREATION   OF   MAN.  97 

thence  with  all  possible  speed ;  and  that  onr  flight,  from 
heuce,  is  this, — to  assimilate  ourselves  to  God  as  much  as 
may  be:  which  assimilation  consists  in  being  just  and 
holy,  with  wisdom,  Plato  therefore  ascribes  the  evils  of 
men  to  "  the  necessity  of  imperfect  beings."  In  other 
words,  that  "  man  is  of  an  order  of  beings  necessarily  lia- 
ble to  some  evils  ;  not  necessarily  and  irresistibly  good 
and  happy."  The  greatest  art,  he  says,  is  to  "  bonify  evils, 
and  to  tincture  them  with  good."  The  Mosaic  account  is, 
that  God  made  man  good,  (perfect,  certainly,  in  his  kind,) 
but  that  an  evil  spirit  tempted  him  to  disobedience ;  and 
we  know  that  the  same  spirit  has  ever  since  been  the  en- 
emy of  man,  even  daring  to  assail  the  Son  of  man  with 
his  temptations.  We  can  readily  see  how  this  may  have 
given  rise  to  Plato's  hjq^othesis  of  an  evil  unmade  demon  ; 
or  disturbing  matter,  according  to  some ;  or  even  to  the 
eternal  principle  of  evil,  as  held  by  others. 


CHAPTEKV. 

ON    THE    CREATION    OF    MAN PART    SECOND. 

ISTo  apology  is  needed  for  jnirsuiiig  the  subject  of  the 
last  chapter  yet  further.  Its  iniportauce  not  only  justifies 
it,  but  requires  it.  "The  proper  study  of  mankind  is 
man."  It  has  ever  been  spoken  in  praise  of  Socrates,  that 
he  brought  philosophy  down  from  airy  speculations  about 
the  heavens  and  the  gods  to  the  consideration  of  man  and 
his  duty.  Plato  also,  his  disciple,  though  investigating 
every  subject  within  the  reach  of  the  human  mind,  dwelt 
much  on  human  nature  and  its  origin,  searching  the  most 
ancient  records  for  his  information. 

There  are  some  questions  growing  out  of  the  Mosaic  ac- 
count of  man's  creation  and  fall,  which  are  of  deep  inter- 
est to  us,  and  are  often  discussed.  To  these  we  will  de- 
vote a  few  pages. 

The  first  is,  as  to  the  goodness  and  justice  of  God  in 
making  an  order  of  beings  liable  to  fall,  and  permitting 
them  to  be  tempted. 

The  second  relates  to  the  appointment  of  such  a  trivial 
exercise  of  their  fidelity  as  the  eating  or  not  eating  of  an 
apple. 

The  third  is,  as  to  permitting  such  a  low  and  loathsome 
reptile  as  the  serpent  to  be  gifted  with  speech,  and  to  be 
used  by  Satan  to  deceive  our  first  parents. 

The  first  of  these  questions  is,  "Was  it  right ;  was  it  consis- 
tent with  the  goodness  of  that  God  with  whom  all  things  are 
possible,  and  who  could  make  holy  angels  and  archangels  as 


ON   THE   CREATION   OF   MAN.  99 

easily  as  man,  to  create  such  a  race  as  man,  well  knowing 
that  he  would  fall,  and  with  him  all  his  posterity  ?  Why  did 
he  not  make  him  proof  against  any  temptation,  and  strong 
enough  at  once  to  overcome  the  devil,  or  avoid  him,  though 
he  should  come  in  the  garb  of  an  angel  of  light  ?  To  this  it 
should  be  sufficient  to  answer,  in  the  words  of  God  by  one 
of  his  prophets,  "Who  art  thou,  O  man,  that  repliest 
against  God?  Shall  the  thing  formed  say  to  him  that 
formed  it,  Why  madest  thou  me  thus  ?  Shall  the  clay 
say  to  the  potter,"  &c.,  &c.  ? 

But  tlie  falsity  of  such  reasoning  against  God  may  be 
made  to  appear,  by  proposing  some  other  questions,  such 
as  the  following :  Why  did  God  make  any  inferior  beings 
at  all  ?  Why  not  make  all  at  once  of  the  highest  conceiv- 
able order,  even  angels  or  archangels?  Since  all  things 
are  possible  with  God,  why  not  make  man,  but  also  every 
beast  of  the  field,  and  fowl  of  the  air,  and  fish  of  the  sea, 
yea,  every  insect,  grain  of  sand,  or  drop  of  water,  an  angel 
or  archangel  at  once,  and  thus  rill  the  whole  universe  with 
pure,  perfect,  and  blissful  beings  ?  Such  a  train  of  thought 
may  surely  discover  to  us  the  absurdities  into  which  we 
plunge,  when  we  undertake  to  question  the  wisdom  of 
God  as  to  any  of  his  works. 

He  has  thought  proj^er  to  fill  his  universe  Avith  innu- 
merable orders  of  beings,  from  the  grain  of  sand  or  little 
insect,  up  to  the  highest  principalities  in  heavenly  places, 
and  in  the  midst  of  it  placed  man,  endowing  him  with 
reason,  imparting  knowledge  to  him,  making  him  capable 
of  standing,  yet  lialjle  to  fall,  and,  even  in  his  present  state, 
of  sinking  lower  or  rising  higher.  But  some  in  their  wis- 
dom would  sti'ike  such  an  order  of  beings  out  of  existence 
as  unworthy  of  the  Creator. 

As  to  the  second  objection,  some  ask,  Was  the  test  a 
suitable  and  worthy  one  ?  Was  it  right  to  suspend  the  life 
and  happiness  of  our  first  parents  on  obedience  to  so  triv- 


100  THE  BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

ial  a  thing  as  the  eating  of  an  apple  ?  Was  this  a  high 
moral  code,  worthy  of  the  divine  Legislator?  Why  did 
he  not  propose  some  great  achievement,  or  painful  sacri- 
fice, corresponding  to  the  prize  at  stake?  In  answer  we 
say,  What  if  some  mighty  exploit  or  great  suffering  had 
been  required  in  order  to  the  continuance  of  that  life  and 
happiness,  which  God  could  so  easily  have  done  without 
any  cost  to  humanity,  how  much  greater  the  complaint 
ao-ainst  God  as  an  hard  taskmaster  !  Does  it  not  become 
us  to  believe  that  God,  who  had  a  perfect  right  to  propose 
what  test  or  act  of  obedience  he  pleased,  would-  choose  the 
most  suitable  one,  neither  too  trivial  nor  too  severely  try- 
ing? Even  our  own  reason  may  suggest  some  things 
showing  the  peculiar  adaptedness  of  the  one  complained 
of  by  some.  Man  is  composed  of  two  parts — body  and 
soul,  the  material  and  the  spiritual — each  having  faculties 
and  members  which  must  be  exercised  and  tried  in  order 
to  the  perfection  of  our  nature  and  the  service  of  God. 
The  appetite  for  food  is  one  of  the  strongest  of  our  animal 
natures,  and  a  large  share  of  the  sin  and  misery  of  man 
grows  out  of  the  undue  indulgence  of  it.  The  forbidden  ap- 
ple was  not  only  beautiful  to  look  on,  but  was  pleasant  to 
the  taste,  and  our  first  parents  were  urged  to  taste  and  see 
how  good  it  was.  They  were  encouraged  so  to  do  by  be- 
ing assured  that  it  was  good  to  make  them  wise,  even 
wiser  than  God  had  thought  proper  to  make  them.  Curi- 
osity, and  the  ambition  to  be  wise,  are  powerful  principles 
in  human  nature.  They  were  told  of  other  beings,  called 
gods,  higher  than  themselves,  and  knowing  more,  into 
whose  state  they  might  be  exalted  by  eating  the  forbidden 
fruit.  To  resist  these  temptations  was  no  trivial  proof  of 
allegiance  to  God,  though  tlie  yielding  to  them  was  great 
folly  and  sin.  Let  ns  try  the  force  of  the  objection  made, 
by  considering  what  more  suitable  proof  of  obedience 
could  have  been  required. 


ON  THE   CREATION  OF   MAN.  101 

Let  ns  take  the  great  and  holy  moral  law  issuing  from 
the  lips  of  Jehovah  himself,  and  see  what  can  be  found  in 
it  more  worthy  of  use  in  this  case.  As  to  the  two  first, 
forbidding  idohitry,  they  could  not  be  used,  since  idolatry 
had  not  found  its  way  into  the  world  at  that  time.  As  to 
the  third,  surely  swearing  was  not  practised.  As  to  the 
fourth,  surely  tliere  was  no  temptation  to  violate  the  Sab- 
bath, when  all  things  abounded  with  so  little  labor.  As 
there  were  no  children  at  tliat  time,  tliere  was  no  tempta- 
tion to  violate  the  fifth  commandment,  enjoining  filial 
obedience.  "Were  we  to  examine  all  the  rest  it  would  be 
seen  that  they  were  equally  unsuitable  as  tests,  if  not  ab- 
solutely incapable  of  application,  under  the  circumstances 
in  which  the  first  parents  of  the  human  race  were  placed  ; 
whereas  the  desire  for  delicious  fruit,  and  the  curiosity  to 
know  more,  and  the  ambition  to  rise  higher,  were  the 
proper  subjects  for  probation  and  trial. 

Let  us  remeniber  that  when  the  Son  of  God,  the  second 
Adam,  through  whom  we  hope  to  regain  all  and  more 
than  all  which  was  lost  by  the  first,  came  into  the  world, 
Satan  was  permitted  to  tempt  him,  through  the  same  ap- 
petites of  body  and  mind.  Li  the  mountain,  where  he 
fasted  for  forty  da3"s  and  nights  and  was  beset  with  hun- 
ger, he  tempted  him  to  sin  in  order  to  get  food,  by  urging 
him  to  turn  stones  into  bread,  and  thus  break  the  appoint- 
ed fast.  He  addressed  himself  to  the  love  of  glory  and 
power,  by  urging  him  to  cast  himself  down  from  the  pin- 
nacle of  the  temple,  and  to  worship  him,  falsely  promis- 
ing all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth. 

The  third  objection  is,  that  it  was  unworthy  of  God  to 
choose  snch  a  low,  odious,  and  contemptible  reptile  as  the 
serpent,  and  endow  him  with  speech  in  order  to  tempt 
our  first  parents. 

We  shall  have  more  to  say  on  this  subject,  when  we 
come  to  consider  the  history  of  the  serpent  and  Satan,  in 


102  THE    BIBLE   A2sD   THE   CLASSICS. 

a  separate  cliapter.  For  the  present,  suffice  it  to  sav,  that 
the  serpent  was  only  the  organ  of  a  mighty  spiritual  being, 
the  father  of  lies,  and  the  author  of  all  mischief. 

Moreover,  as  we  must  not  judge  of  Adam  in  his 
first  state,  fresh  from  the  hands  of  God,  by  what  we  see 
of  him  in  some  of  his  debased  descendants,  so  we  must 
not  determine  what  the  serpent  of  paradise  was,  from 
what  the  odious  reptile  now  is,  since  the  curse  of  God  has 
glued  him  to  the  earth.  Concerning  the  original  perfec- 
tion of  man,  as  coming  from  his  Maker's  hand  and  pro- 
nounced to  be  very  good,  we  are  liable  to  misunderstand 
the  term.  God  alone,  so  far  as  we  know,  is  perfect  in  the 
highest  sense  of  the  word, — that  is,  infinitely  perfect.  He 
is  perfect,  in  that  he  existed  from  all  eternity,  and  created 
all  things.  He  is  perfect  in  all  his  attributes  of  holiness, 
power,  knowledge,  &c.  All  other  beings  and  things  are 
comparatively  imperfect.  His  very  angels  he  chargeth 
with  folly.  "  The  heavens  are  not  clean  in  his  sight," 
"  The  moon  sbineth  not  in  his  presence."  Innumerable 
orders  of  beings,  perfect  in  their  kind,  but  imperfect  by 
comparison  with  him,  were  made  by  him.  Some  angels 
have  fallen  ;  others  have  not.  Man,  though  inferior  to 
some  orders — as,  for  instance,  the  angels  who  have  kept 
their  estate,  whatever  he  may  be  as  to  those  who  fell — is 
yet  superior  to  innumerable  orders  of  beings  who  fall 
below  him  in  the  scale  of  creation,  and  has,  even  in  his 
fallen  state,  great  cause  for  rejoicing,  when  redemption  is 
taken  into  the  account.  It  has  been  well  said,  that 
"  Every  child  bringing  into  the  world  the  guilt  of  Adam's 
sin,  brings  along  with  it  the  benefits  of  Christ's  mediation 
and  death." 

When  we  remember  all  that  God  has  done  for  us  by 
his  Son  and  Spirit,  in  otir  fallen  condition,  we  should  not 
complain,  but  feel  that  we  are  brought  under  renew^ed 
obligations  to  him.     If   the   devil   be   still   our   enemy. 


ox   THE    CREATIOX   OF   MAX.  103 

Christ  is  our  friend,  and  he  wlio  is  for  us  is  greater  than 
he  who  is  against  us — greater  than  all  who  are  against  us. 

Though  man,  especially  in  his  fallen  state,  must  be  liable 
to  temptation,  or  trial,  in  this  place  of  probation,  yet  it 
is  not  a  temptation  or  trial  which  justly  subjects  God  to 
the  charge  of  being  the  author  of  sin.  God  utterly 
disavows  the  authorship  of  sin.  lie  made  the  earth  good, 
and  out  of  nothing,  and  not  out  of  some  unmanageable 
malignant  matter,  according  to  some  j^hilosophers.  He 
made  a  good  man  out  of  the  good  earth,  as  to  his  body, 
and  breathed  a  good  soul  into  him.  But  he  made  him  a 
rational  being,  to  obey  his  Maker ;  not  of  force  and  ne- 
cessity, but  willingly,  and  of  choice.  Good  and  evil,  obe- 
dience and  disobedience,  were  set  before  him.  God  did 
not  tempt  him  to  choose  the  evil.  The  account  of  it  is 
this,  "  Let  no  man  say  when  he  is  tempted,  I  am  tempted 
of  God :  for  God  cannot  be  tempted  of  evil,  neither 
tempteth  he  any  man :  but  every  man  is  tempted  when  he 
is  drawn  away  of  his  own  lust,  and  enticed." 

St.  Paul  calls  this  lust  "  a  law  in  our  members  war- 
ring against  the  law  in  our  minds,"  inclining  us  to  evil 
when  we  would  do  good.  The  heathen  poets  speak  in 
like  manner : 

"  Nitiraur  in  vetitum  semper  cupimus  qne  negata, 
Yideo  ineliora,  proboque,  deteriora  seqiior," 

The  heathen  knew  not  where  to  go  for  help.  Chris- 
tians know  that  "  tliere  is  a  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in 
Christ  Jesus,  which  makes  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and 
death." 

The  following  passage  from  the  celebrated  Sir  "William 
Jones,  after  considering  the  Eastern  systems  which  speak 
of  the  formation  of  man  as  an  order  of  beings  caj^able 
of  standing  yet  liable  to  fall,  is  much  to  the  point:  "And 
if  perfect  justice  be,  as  it  is  most  indubitably,  an  essential 


104  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

attribute  of  God,  the  first  pair  must  have  been  gifted  with 
sufiicient  wisdom  and  strength  to  be  virtuous,  and,  as  far  as 
their  nature  admitted,  happy,  but  entrusted  with  freedom 
of  will  to  be  vicious,  and  consequently  degraded." 

The  following  passages  from  two  of  our  most  distin- 
guished English  poets,  on  the  subjects  just  discussed,  will 
not  be  without  interest  to  our  readers. 

Milton,  in  his  celebrated  poem  "  Paradise  Lost,"  thus 
speaks  of  the  creation  of  angels  : 

"  Such  I  created  all  the  ethereal  powers 
And  spirits,  both  them  who  stood  and  them  who  failed. 
Freely  they  stood,  who  stood,  and  fell,  who  fell." 

Speaking  of  the  fall  of  man,  he  makes  God  to  say, 

"  They  themselves  decreed  their  own  revolt." 

"  If  I  foreknew. 
Fore-knowledge  had  no  influence  on  their  fault." 

Comparing  the  fall  of  angels  with  that  of  men,  he  says, 

"  The  first  sort,  of  their  own  suggestion,  fell, 
Self-tempted,  self-depraved.     Man  Mis,  deceived 
By  the  other  first.     Man  therefore  shall  find  grace, 
The  other  none." 

"  Man  shall  not  quite  be  lost,  but  saved  who  will ; 
Yet  not  of  will  in  him,  but  grace  in  me, 
Freely  vouchsafed." 

"  Some  have  I  chosen  of  peculiar  grace, 
Elect  above  the  rest." 

But  he  warns  against  prying  into  the  decrees  of  Heaven  : 

"  Heaven  is  for  thee  too  high 
To  know  what  passes  there.     Be  lowly  wise ; 
Think  only  what  concerns  thee,  and  thy  being." 


OlSr  THE   CREATION   OF   MAN,  105 

As  to  discussion  about  the  secret  things  of  God,  he  says, 

"Vain  wisdom  all,  and  false  philosophy." 

As  to  the  much  discussed  question  about  the  effect  of 
eating  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil, 
Milton  has  probably  said  as  much  in  two  lines  as  we  shall 
ever  find  out : 

"  Since  our  eyes 
Opened,  we  find,  indeed,  and  find  we  know 
Both  good,  and  evil.     Good  lost,  and  evil  got." 

PASSAGES   FROM   POPE's   ESSAY   ON   MAN. 

This  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  poetical  paraphrase  of 
one  of  Lord  Bolingbroke's  works — an  infidel  production, 
and  which,  it  is  said,  the  poet  did  not  understand  himself, 
if  his  lordship  did.     He  calls  Lord  Bolingbroke 

"  My  guide,  philosopher,  and  friend." 

Though  Pope  was  not  one  of  the  infidels  of  that  day, 
yet  tliere  is  little  of  Christianity  in  his  writings,  and  much 
of  the  impure.  In  his  "  Universal  Prayer  to  the  Father  of 
All,"  he  addresses  liim  as  worshipped 

"  By  saint,  by  savage,  and  by  sage, 
Jehovah,  Jove,  or  Lord  " — 

as  though  all  were  alike  the  same.  ^Nevertheless,  in 
spite  of  his  lordship's  scepticism,  and  the  poet's  ignorance, 
tliere  are  some  excellent  things  in  the  "  Essay  on  Man,"  in 
relation  to  the  subject  of  this  chapter.     He  speaks  of  man 

"  As  a  mighty  maze,  yet  not  without  a  plan." 

As  to  the  objections  made  to  some  things  in  the  world, 
he  says. 


106  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE    CLASSICS. 

*'  All  partial  ill  is  universal  good, 
All  are  but  parts  of  a  stupendous  whole." 

"  'Tis  but  a  part  we  see  and  not  the  whole." 

He  speaks  of  man  as 

"That  chain  which  links  the  immense  design, 
Joins  heaven  and  earth,  the  mortal  and  divine." 

God  only 

"  May  tell  why  Heaven  has  made  us  as  we  are  ; 
Why  formed  so  weak,  so  little,  and  so  blind. 
There  must  be  somewhere  such  a  rank  as  man." 

But  some  are  dissatisfied  : 

"  Men  would  be  angels,  angels  would  be  gods." 
To  those  who  ask, 

"  Why  is  not  man  a  god,  and  earth  a  heaven  ? " 

he  replies, 

"  Who  ask,  and  reason  thus,  will  scarce  conceive 
God  gives  enough  while  he  has  more  to  give." 

It  was  perhaps  to  some  such  feeling  in  our  first  parents 
that  the  devil  addressed  the  temptation, 

"  Ye  shall  be  as  gods." 

We  conclude  our  poetic  testimonies  with  a    passage 
from  Dr.  Young,  descriptive  of  man. 

"  From  differing  natures,  marvellously  mixed, 
Connection  exquisite  of  distant  worlds. 
Distinguished  link  in  being's  endless  chain, 
Midway  from  nothing  to  the  Deity. 
Dim  miniature  of  greatness  absolute." 

Concerning  Pope's  "  Essay  on  Man,"  Dr.  Young  has  well 
said, 


ON  THE   CREATION   OF   MAN.  107 

"  Man  too  he  sung :  immortal  man  I  sing. 
Oh  !  had  he  pressed  his  theme,  pursued  his  track, 
"Which  opens  out  of  darkness  into  day  ; 
Oh  !  had  he  mounted  on  his  wings  of  fire, 
Soar'd  where  I  sink,  and  sung  immortal  man, — 
How  had  it  blest  mankind  and  rescued  me  !  " 

On  the  whole  we  may  say,  divines,  poets,  and  philosophers 
generally  agree,  that  if  God  had  not  given  a  certain  free- 
dom of  will  and  action  to  man,  but  had  by  irresistible  in- 
fluences made  it  impossible  for  him.  to  fall,  or  had  set  a 
strong  guard  of  angels  around  paradise  to  prevent  tlie  en- 
trance of  the  evil  one,  he  would  not  have  dealt  with  him 
as  a  rational  and  accountable  creature,  and  man  would 
not  have  been  a  link  of  beings,  on  probation,  lying  be- 
tween perfected  angels  and  the  lower  animals  of  earth. 


SIR  MATTHEW  HALE  S  VIEWS  OK  THE   CEEATION  OF  MEN. 

Having  occasion  to  quote  the  opinion  of  this  great  man, 
of  whom  it  is  written,  "  A  light,  saith  the  Bar  ;  a  light, 
saith  the  Pulpit,"  because  of  his  eminence  in  theology 
as  well  as  in  jurisprudence,  and  who  was  Chief  Justice  of 
England  during  four  successive  reigns,  if  Cromwell's  gov- 
ernment may  be  reckoned  as  one  of  them,  I  mention  a 
circumstance  which  I  have  somewhere  read  concerning 
his  great  work,  "The  Primitive  Origination  of  Man," 
from  which  the  following  passages  are  taken.  Unknown 
to  any  one,  he  spent  the  leisure  hours  of  ten  years  in  pre- 
paring it.  When  completed,  he  caused  it  to  be  placed  in 
the  hands  of  Archbishop  Tillotson  and  one  other  learned 
divine,  without  permitting  them  to  know  its  authorship, 
in  order  to  find  out  their  honest  judgment  of  the  same. 
After  a  careful  examination  of  it,  they  agreed  that  there 
was  but  one  man  in  the  kingdom  who  could  write  it,  and 


108  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE    CLASSICS. 

that  man  Sir  Matthew  Hale.  They  informed  him  of  this 
and  insisted  on  its  publication.  Much  as  has  been  writ- 
ten on  the  various  points  treated  of  in  his  work,  during 
nearly  two  centuries  since  its  appearance,  but  little  of  im- 
portance has  been  added  to  it. 

As  to  the  opinion  of  the  philosophers  concerning  the 
origin  of  man,  he  says :  "  Aristotle,  and  even  Plato, 
seemed  sometimes  to  believe  in  the  eternal  generation  of 
men,  though  at  others  asserting  the  contrary.  Many 
affirmed  it  positively." 

Sir  Matthew  uses  his  logical  powers  with  great  ability 
in  showing  the  absurdity  of  such  an  hypothesis.  He  also 
exposes  the  idleness  of  the  theory  of  Epicurus  and  Lucre- 
tius, who  held  the  origin  of  men  to  have  been  derived 
from  the  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms,  with,  perhaps, 
some  seminal  particles  in  them.  He  speaks  of  those  who 
thought  that  man  issued  from  rich  and  slimy  earth,  espe- 
cially that  of  Egypt  on  the  Nile,  after  a  long  incubation 
or  resting  of  the  waters,  with  a  certain  conjuncture  of  the 
planets  favoring  vegetation,  or  the  beginning  of  life. 

Ovid  seems  to  refer  to  both  of  the  foregoing  in  his 
Metamorphoses  : 

"  Natus  homo  est.  sive  hunc  divino  semine  fecit, 
Ille  opiferx  rerum,  mundi  melioris  origo ; 
Sive  recens  tellus,  seductuque  nuper  ab  alto, 
^there  cognati  retinebat  ssemina  coeli." 

Here  is  a  distinct  recognition  of  the  tradition  of  the 
heavenly  origin  of  man. 

Others  there  were,  as  Zeno  Citicus,  who  came  nearer 
to  scripture,  and  ascribed  the  creation  of  man  to  the  jlat^ 
or  command,  the  hoene  ijlacituin^  or  good-will,  of  God. 
They  generally  agreed  that  he  was  made  by  God  out  of 
moist  earth,  by  the  instrumentality  of  heat  and  light. 

"Again,"   he   says,  "  some   affirm,    '  Semper  homines 


ON"  THE   CREATION   OF   MAX.  109 

fiiisse ;  nee  unqiiam  nisi  en  hominibus  natos.'  Others 
maintain,  'Fuisse  tempus  cnm  homines  non  essent.'"  In 
other  words,  "  Some  say  that  men  always  were  in  eternal 
succession  from  other  men  ;"  while  others  say  there  was  a 
time  when  men  were  not,  but  that  their  origin  was  to  be 
ascribed  to  nature — that  is,  were  made,  not  immediately 
by  the  hand  of  God,  but  by  some  natural  process  or  de- 
velopment, as  vegetables  and  lower  animals  seem  to  be. 

In  reply  to  those  who  object  to  the  present  state  of  things 
— that  it  ought  to  have  been  better — that  if  God  be  es- 
sentially good  and  perfect  he  should  have  been  filling  the 
universe  with  worlds  and  happy  beings  from  eternity — he 
answers,  that "  In  his  acts  of  beneficence  God  is  not  neces- 
sitated by  his  own  perfection  to  act  '  ad  ultmium  jposse^ — 
that  is,  to  do  the  utmost  possible  good,  but  is  guided  by  the 
freedom  of  his  own  will,"  as  to  the  time  and  manner  of 
doing  anything.  As  to  the  image  and  likeness  of  God  in 
which  man  was  made,  he  considers  that  it  was  a  moral  and 
intellectual  one,  and  not  a  corporeal  one,  after  the  pattern 
of  Christ  in  the  flesh,  as  some  suppose.  He  says  :  "  In  the 
language  of  scripture  and  the  ancients,  in  the  work  of 
creation  man  was  made  like  unto  God  ;  but  in  the  work  of 
redemption  the  Son  of  God  was  made  like  unto  man." 
"  God,"  he  says,  "  gave  man  a  moral  law,  implanting  it 
in  his  heart,  and  which  is  the  original  of  that  which  yet 
remains  in  men  in  some  degree,  though  so  much  weak- 
ened and  obscured  by  the  fall.  He  also  gave  him  a  posi- 
tive law,  requiring  obedience  on  pain  of  death.  Left  to 
the  liberty  of  his  own  will,  though  having  suflicient  abil- 
ity to  obey,  he  fell,  through  temptation  of  Satan  and  his 
own  sensuality  and  ambition." 


110  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

OTHER    TESTIMONIES. 

On  the  subject  of  man's  dignity  and  liigli  station  among 
the  works  of  God,  we  must  remember  the  apostle's  injunc- 
tion not  to  think  too  highly  of  ourselves,  but  soberly. 
There  have  been  those  who  seem  to  think  that  they  really 
are  what  the  serpent  promised  our  first  parents  they 
should  be, — that  is,  gods.  I  remember  being  much 
shocked,  when  a  youth,  at  the  saying  of  a  noted  iniidel, 
that  he  was  as  much  God  as  any  other  being  in  the 
world.  I  did  not  then  know  that  there  had  been  some 
men,  even  in  the  days  of  Aristotle,  who  maintained  that 
there  were  no  greater  beings  in  the  world  than  them- 
selves, and  whom  Aristotle  laughed  to  scorn  for  their 
folly.  Herodotus,  also,  has  well  said  :  "  God  allows  no 
one  to  have  high  thoughts  but  himself."  "  He  loves  to 
bring  down  everything  that  exalts  itself." 

And  yet  we  must  not  degrade  our  nature  below  the 
rank  which  God  has  assigned  to  it,  which  is  one,  even  in 
our  present  state,  only  a  little  lower  than  that  of  the 
angels. 

The  following  passage  in  Mr.  Trench's  lectures  is  no 
extravagant  eulogy  on  man's  position  in  the  earth  :  "  Scrip- 
ture is  no  story  of  the  material  universe.  A  single  chap- 
ter is  sufficient  to  tell  us  that  '  God  made  the  heavens  and 
the  earth.'  Man  is  the  central  figure  there,  or,  to  speak 
more  truly,  the  only  figure  ;  all  which  is  there  beside 
serves  but  as  a  background  for  him.  Such  he  appears 
there  in  his  unfallen  condition ;  and  even  now,  when 
only  a  broken  fragment  of  the  sceptre  with  which  once 
he  ruled  the  world  remains  in  his  hand,  such  he  is  com- 
manded to  regard  himself  still." 

Our  great  theological  poet  describes  even  the  prince  of 
the  fallen  ones  as  still  retaining  something  of  his  past 
high  rank : 


ON  THE   CREATION   OF  MAN.  Ill 

"  His  form  had  not  yet  lost 
All  its  original  brightness,  nor  appeared 
Less  than  archangel  ruined,  and  the  excess 
Of  glory  obscured." 

We  know  not  what  was  tlie  difference  between  man 
and  the  angels  that  fell,  before  then-  fall ;  but  this  we 
know,  that  the  relation  we  now  bear  to  their  great  leader 
is  that  of  children  to  a  parent.  "  Ye  are  of  your  father 
the  devil"  is  our  lineage  and  character,  and  our  final  and 
everlasting  doom  will  be  the  same  with  his  and  his  rebel- 
lions crew.  The  same  place  is  prepared  to  be  the  eternal 
abode  of  the  impenitent  wicked  among  men,  and  the  devil 
with  his  angels.  St.  John  speaks  of  the  devil  as  being 
"  created  in  the  truth,  but  who  abode  not  in  it."  St.  Peter 
speaks  of  "  the  angels  who  sinned,"  and  St.  Jude  of  the 
"  angels  who  kept  not  their  first  estate."  All  that  is  said 
of  them  would  lead  us  to  suppose  them  to  be  very  like 
unto  man.  So  as  to  the  unfallen  angels.  Man,  in  his 
natural  state,  especially  as  to  his  body,  and  even  Christ 
as  to  his  natural  body,  were  only  a  little  lower  than  the 
angels.  In  his  glorified  state,  man  will  be  equal  to 
angels. 

"  When  we  are  informed,"  says  one,  "  that  man  was 
made  after  the  image  of  God,  this  almost  amounts  to  a 
declaration  that  his  was  the  highest  style  of  created  being, 
and  that  no  higher  type,  or  pattern,  could  ever  appear. 
The  original,  of  which  he  is  a  copy,  is  the  highest  possi- 
ble, and  the  artist  being  God  himself,  we  may  be  sure  it 
was  executed  in  the  very  highest  style."  The  crime  of 
mm'der  is  ever  represented  as  most  heinous,  because  man 
was  made  in  the  image  of  God.  Clothed  in  a  spiritual 
body,  Christ  is  exalted  to  the  right  hand  of  God,  far  above 
all  principality  and  power,  and  might  and  dominion,  and 
every  name  that  is  named,  not  only  in  this  world,  but  in 
that  which  is  to  come. 


112  THE  BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

If  it  be  said  tliat  man  is  very  like  to  the  inferior  ani- 
mals in  many  parts  of  his  structure,  and  that  this  detracts 
from  his  high  dignity,  it  is  replied,  that  this  is  only  a 
confirmation  of  the  doctrine  of  man's  high  order.  "  It  is 
because  they  are  all  the  hand-work  of  the  same  artist " 
that  they  are  so  much  alike,  and  so  perfect  in  their  kind. 

"  The  human,"  says  Fairbairn,  in  his  excellent  work  on 
the  "  Typology  of  Scripture,"  "  is  the  pattern  form  of  all 
animal  existences.  In  the  structure  of  all  other  animal 
forms  there  are  observable  sttiking  resemblances  to  that 
of  man.  Each  man,  in  himself,  is  not  the  microcosm  of 
the  old  fanciful  philosophers,  but  something  greatly  more 
wonderful — a  compendium  of  all  animated  nature,  and  of 
kin  to  every  creature  that  lives."  "  Man,"  says  another, 
"  is  the  sum-total  of  all  animals."  Professor  Owen  says, 
"  All  the  parts  and  organs  had  been  sketched  out,  in  an- 
ticipation, so  to  speak,  in  the  inferior  animals."  What  a 
piece  of  work  is  man !  we  may  truly  say — how  fearfully 
and  how  wonderfully  made !  But  while  he  thus  soars 
above  all  the  animals  of  earth,  it  is  his  connection  with 
heavenly  beings  that  constitutes  his  chief  glory.  He  be- 
longs to  the  whole  family  of  God,  which  is  both  in 
heaven  and  earth  ;  and  if  he  so  resembles  the  inferior  ani- 
mals of  earth,  much  more  does  he  resemble  the  higher 
ones  in  heaven.  But  it  is  his  connection  with  the  great 
Head  that  constitutes  his  crowning  glory.  "  How  could 
God,"  says  Neander,  "  place  himself  in  so  near  a  relation 
to  individual  men  (as  in  the  incarnation),  and  ascribe  to 
them  so  high  a  dignity,  if  they  were  mere  perishable 
appearances,  if  they  had  not  an  essence  akin  to  his  own, 
and  destined  for  immortality  ? " 


CHAPTEE  YI. 

INTIMATIONS    OF    THE    TRINITY    AT    THE    FOHMATION    OF    MAN. 

In  the  26th  verse  of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  it  is 
written,  "  And  God  said,  Let  us  make  man,  in_our  image, 
after  our  likeness," 

Before  dismissing  tlie  subject  of  man's  creation,  it  may 
be  well  to  inquire  briefly  into  the  meaning  of  the  words, 
"  Let  us  make  man."  Some  of  the  Jewish  doctors  main- 
tain that  this  was  a  real  consultation,  held  with  such 
angelic  beings  as  God  might  think  proper  to  employ  in 
man's  creation.  This  of  course  cannot  be  accepted  by 
Christians.  Some  modern  expositors  regard  it  as  only  a 
majestic  form  of  speech,  such  as  is  used  by  some  kings 
who  use  the  plural  number  in  giving  commands,  or 
addressing  their  subjects.  But  as  there  were  no  men, 
and  of  course  no  great  men  at  the  time  this  was  spoken, 
so  thei'e  was  no  such  manner  of  speech  then  or  for  ages 
after  Moses ;  for  in  order  to  assert  great  authority,  the 
custom  among  kings  was  to  use  the  first  person.  So  it 
was  formerly  in  England,  and  is  in  some  countries  to  this 
day. 

The  general  belief  is  that  there  is  reference  here  to  the 
three  persons  of  the  ever  blessed  Trinity,  as  received  by 
Christians.  The  word  Eloliim,  in  the  Hebrew,  which  is 
translated  God,  is  in  the  plural  number,  and  used  with  a 
plural  verb.  While  the  Scriptures,  from  first  to  last, 
assert  the  unity  of  God  against  all  the  notions  and  wor- 
ship of  the  heathen,  yet  do  we  fiud  God  acting  towards 
man  in  what  Christians,  for  the  want  of  something  more 


114  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  CLASSICS. 

intelligible,  call  persons.  We  read  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
moving  on  the  face  of  the  waters  at  the  beginning,  and 
bringing  all  things  into  order.  This  Spirit  is  often  spoken 
of  in  the  scriptures,  sometimes  under  the  name  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  We  read  also  that  Christ  was  the  Logos  or 
Word,  by  which,  "  in  the  beginning,  God  made  all 
things,  and  without  whom  nothing  was  made."  He  it 
is  that  was  called  "  the  angel  of  God's  presence,"  who 
watched  over  the  children  of  Israel  in  all  their  journey- 
ings,  and  so  often  appeared  to  God's  chosen  servants. 
These  three  persons,  though  declared  to  be  one  God,  and 
not  at  all  interfering  with  the  unity  of  the  Godhead,  are 
often  united  in  the  apostolic  benedictions  of  the  New 
Testament,  where  the  Grace  of  the  Father,  Son,  and 
Spirit  is  invoked.  The  learned  Dr.  Whitby  says,  that 
from  the  times  of  the  apostles,  almost  all  of  the  fathers 
understood  these  words  as  applied  to  the  three  persons  of 
the  Trinity.  Learned  Jewish  rabbis  maintain  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity  as  drawn  from  the  word  Eloliim,  or 
Alohim,  as  used  in  this  and  other  passages,  and  declare 
that  such  was  the  understanding  of  the  ancient  Jews. 

According  to  the  plan  of  this  work,  we  shall  briefly  pre- 
sent the  evidences  of  any  tradition  in  relation  to  it  which 
may  have  come  down  through  other  nations,  or  of  any 
opinions  bearing  a  resemblance  to  it.  The  number  three 
has  certainly  been  a  most  favorite  one  in  the  heathen 
world,  as  may  be  seen  in  all  their  sacred  books.  The 
triads  of  the  Gentiles  have  been  the  subject  of  much  dis- 
cussion in  the  Christian  church.  The  learned  Mr.  Faber, 
who  has  written  so  voluminously  on  pagan  mythology, 
and  given  such  particular  attention  to  this  subject,  and 
pays  so  much  respect  to  concurrent  tradition,  does  not 
think  what  are  called  the  triads  of  the  Gentiles  are 
derived  from  original  revelation  and  tradition,  though 
he  believes  that  the  Trinity  is  referred  to  in  the  words 


ESTTIMATIONS  OF  THE   TRINITY.  116 

"  Let  tcs  make  man."  The  result  of  his  inquiries  is,  that 
the  triads  of  the  Gentiles  have  the  same  origin  with  the 
pagan  idolatry,  which  elevated  the  sous  of  Noah,  under 
the  names  of  Jupiter,  Neptune,  and  Pluto,  to  the  first  rank 
of  Deities.  These  three  are  mingled  with  all  the  mytholo- 
gies of  the  heathen  world.  The  Persians  had  their  three- 
fold distribution  of  the  Deity,  assigning  to  Oromasdes, 
Aramanes,  and  Mithras  diiferent  works,  calling  Mithras 
the  mediator,  or  middle.  The  Chaldeans  have  also  some- 
thing of  this  kind.  They  say  that  "  in  the  whole  world 
shineth  forth  a  Triad  or  Trinity,  the  head  whereof  is  a 
Mouod  or  Unity."  Whether  these  mythological  tradi- 
tions or  opinions  were  the  source  of  that  Trinity  which 
was  set  up  among  the  heathen  philosophers,  and  which  at 
length,  about  400  years  before  Christ,  settled  down  into 
what  was  called  the  Platonic  Trinity,  we  cannot  say ;  but 
certain  it  is  that  Plato  and  other  philosopher's  spoke  of 
three  operations  of  the  Great  Deity,  in  such  a  way  as  in 
after  times  misled  many  of  the  early  Christians  into 
a  belief  that  his  system  differed  but  little  from  the  Bible, 
and  caused  much  Huhappiness  in  the  Christian  church. 

The  learned  Cudworth,  in  his  "  Intellectual  System," 
says,  "  That  some  philosophers  called  the  highest,  Numen, 
the  first  god  ;  Intelligence,  the  second  god  ;  the  Mundane 
Soul,  or  animated  world,  the  third,"  "  Plato's  eternal 
gods,"  he  says,  "  were  not  independent,  but  two  of  them 
were  derived  from  one  eternal  principle." 

An  ancient  writer,  Numerius,  commenting  on  Plato's 
Trinity,  calls  "  the  Father  the  first  /  the  Maker  of  the 
world  the  second  /  the  world  itself  the  thirdr  Another 
says  that  this  Trinity  was  not  the  invention  of  Plato,  as 
Plato  himself  acknowledges,  but  that  Parmenides  taught 
it  before  him  ;  and  as  Parmenides  was  a  disciple  of  Py- 
thagoras, and  Pythagoras  drew  much  from  the  system  of 
Orpheus,  it  may  be  traced  up  to  that.     Now,  Pythagoras 


V* 


116  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

taught  that  "  Tlie  first  one  or  unity  is  above  all  essences  " 
— "  the  second  is  ideas,  and'  intelligible  " — the  tJiird  is  the 
soul  of  the  world,  and  partakes  of  the  two  first." 

According  to  the  ancient  Orphic  system,  Phanus,  Uranus, 
and  Chronus  were  three  beings,  or  gods,  or  principles, 
corresponding  to  the  Platonic  Trinity,  and  probably  sug- 
gested the  idea. 

The  Samothracians  also  had  anciently  their  Trinity  of 
gods,  calling  them  by  an  Hebrew  name,  Cahharini,  "  the 
mighty  gods." 

Aristotle  says  that  the  number  three  was  a  sacred 
number  among  the  ancient  pagans — "  Wherefore  from 
nature,  and  as  it  were  observing  her  laws,  have  we  taken 
the  number  three,  making  use  of  the  same  in  the  sacri- 
fices to  the  gods,  and  other  purifications." 

Proclus  also  says,  concerning  the  Trinity  of  the  philoso- 
phers, that  "  It  was  a  theology  of  divine  tradition,  coming 
first  throiio;h  the  Jews,  thoiis^h  difi'erino-  in  some  thino;s." 

Now,  when  we  find  so  much  in  the  ancient  traditions 
and  mythologies  about  the  great  Father  triplicating  him- 
self, and  becoming  three  gods,  and  so  -much  among  the 
philosophers  about  three  principles,  or  beings,  all  eternal, 
and  two  proceeding  from  the  first  great  one,  and  all  three 
infinitely  above  all  other  gods,  the  thought  will  force  itself 
upon  us  that  there  was  either  some  original  revelation 
and  tradition  about  it,  or  else  that  there  was  something 
in  the  human  mind  which  was  always  calling  for  some 
such  distribution  of  the  divine  attributes,  among  what 
Christians  call  the  persons  or  hypostases  of  the  Deity, 
which  were  o'inoousias,  or  consiibstantial  with  each  other, 
BO  as  not  to  interfere  with  the  unity  of  the  self-existent 
( and  eternal  God,  from  whom  all  things  proceed.* 

*  It  may  have  some  effect  on  our  young  Americans,  to  adduce  the  following 
opinion  of  perhaps  the  greatest  intellect  this  country  has  ever  produced.  The 
late  Daniel  Webster  said,  "  I  believe  that  God  exists  in  three  persons.    This 


INTIMATIONS   OF  THE   TRINITY.  117 

Such  was  the  opinion  of  the  candid  and  learned  Dr. 
Cud  worth,  who,  after  a  full  consideration  of  the  Platonic 
Trinity,  and  after  showing  the  difference  between  it  and 
the  Scriptural  Trinity,  nevertheless  acknowledges  that 
there  is  "  a  wonderful  correspondence  between  them,  and 
that  this  parallelism  between  them  might  be  of  some  use 
to  satisfy  those  amongst  us  who  boggle  so  much  at  the 
Trinity,  when  they  shall  find  that  the  freest  wits  among 
the  pagans,  and  the  best  philosophers,  who  had  nothing 
of  superstition  to  determine  them  that  way,  were  so  far 
from  being  shy  of  such  an  hypothesis,  that  they  were 
even  fond  of  it."  To  this  it  may  be  added,  that  although 
many  of  the  early  Christians  were  led  into  a  snare  by  it, 
yet  the  favor  shown  to  it  by  many  learned  men  proves 
that  there  must  have  been  no  slight  resemblance  between 
the  systems  ;  enough  to  justify  our  reference  to  it  in  this 
work. 

The  following,  taken  from  one  of  our  American  periodi- 
cals, is  worthy  of  insertion  on  the  subject  treated  of  in 
the  foregoing  pages : 

ANCIENT  JEWISH   TKmiTT. 

"  The  proof  of  this  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  must  unques- 
tionably be  derived  from  the  scriptures  alone  ;  but  when 
a  doctrine  of  this  extraordinary  nature  is  presented  to  the 
mind,  we  naturally  feel  a  strong  curiosity  to  know  the 
manner  in  which  the  same  has  been  regarded  by  others, 
particularly  by  such  as  have  lived  before  us  ;  and  pecu- 
liarly by  the  ancient  members  of  the  Jewish  and  Chris- 
tian churches.  Nor  is  this  a  matter  of  mere  curiosit3^ 
If  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  were  first  now  .discovered 

I  learn  from  Revelation  alone.  Nor  is  it  any  objection  to  this  belief,  that  I 
cannot  comprehend  how  one  can  be  three,  or  three  one.  I  hold  it  my  duty  to 
believe,  not  what  I  can  comprehend  or  account  for,  but  what  my  Maker  teaches 
me." 


118  THE   BIBLE  AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

by  mankind  to  be  contained  in  the  scriptures — the  words 
being  supposed  to  have  remained  always  the  same — we 
should  undoubtedly  be  surprised  to  find  that  those  pas- 
sages which,  in  our  view,  clearly  contain  this  doctrine, 
had  never  been  understood  by  others  in  the  same  manner 
as  by  ourselves.  But  the  ancient  Jews  always  under- 
stood and  taught  this  doctrine  as  it  was  understood  and 
taught  by  the  prophets.  In  the  concise  history  of  the 
creation,  Moses  says,  more  than  thirty  times,  Aloim, — that 
is,  gods, — created  ;  the  noun  being  plural  and  the  verb 
singular  in  every  instance.  These  the  Jewish  Paraphrasts 
explained  by  Jehovah, — his  Word,  that  is,  his  Son, — and 
his  Wisdom,  or  Holy  Spirit ;  which  they  call  '  three  de- 
grees.' These  three,  they  assert,  are  one,  and  declare 
them  to  be  one  inseparable  Jehovah.  This  doctrine  the 
Jews  have  exhibited  in  a  variety  of  methods,  clear,  con- 
vincing, and  impressive.  These  I  shall  briefly  exhibit. 
The  first  remarkable  sentence  is  from  Kabbi  Judah  Hak- 
kadash,  or  Judah  the  Holy, — in  which  the  doctrine  of 
the  Jewish  church  is  declared,  in  the  most  explicit 
manner,  to  be  '  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son,  God  the 
Holy  Ghost ;  three  in  Unity,  one  in  Trinity.'  This 
Eabbi  flourished  in  the  second  century.  The  Jews  an- 
ciently used  a  solemn  symbol  of  the  Deity,  which  they 
called  called  SepJiii'oth,  a  word  signifying  enumerations, 
but  used  by  their  learned  men  to  denote  splendor.  These 
are  sometimes  exhibited  in  the  form  of  a  tree  with  its 
branches  extended,  and  sometimes  by  ten  concentric  cir- 
cles— that  figure  being  the  symbol  of  perfection.  All 
these  splendors  are  represented  as  issuing  from  the  su- 
preme and  infinite  source,  as  light  from  the  sun.  Of 
this  tree.  Rabbi  Schabte  says :  '  There  are  three  degrees 
— the  root,  the  stem,  and  the  branches, — and  these  three 
are  one.'  By  this  he  intends,  that  the  infinite  source  and 
the  other  two  degrees  are  one  and  inseparable. 


INTIMATIONS   OF  THE   TRINITY.  119 

"  Again :  the  ancient  Jews  wrote  the  name  of  God  sym- 
bolically, by  including  three  gods  within  a  circle,  and 
subscribing  under  the  gods  and  within  the  circle  the 
vowel  hametz.  The  circle  was  the  figure  denoting  per- 
fection. The  three  gods  were  the  beginning  letter  of  the 
word  Jehovah,  thrice  repeated  to  denote  the  three  persons 
in  the  Godhead.  The  kametz  was  the  point  of  perfec- 
tion, and  denoted  the  same  thing  with  the  circle,  and  the 
unity  of  the  divine  essence.  The  letter  Schin  was 
another  emblem  of  the  Most  High,  in  use  among  the 
Jews.  This  letter,  which  is  the  first  in  the  word  Shaddai, 
or  the  Almighty,  one  of  the  scripture  names  of  God,  is 
formed  of  three  branches,  alike  in  size  and  figure,  espe- 
cially as  written  in  the  old  Samaritan  character,  and 
united  in  one  stem.  This  letter  is  distinctly  written  on 
the  Phylacteries  which  are  worn  by  Jews  at  the  present 
day. 

"Such  are  some  of  the  testimonies  of  the  Jewish  church 
concerning  this  subject, — composed  on  the  one  hand  of 
direct  declarations,  and  on  the  other  of  symbols  equally 
definite  and  certain,  especially  as  explained  by  their  own 
commentators.  These  prove,  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt, 
that  the  ancient  Jewish  church  held  uniformly  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity.  The  latter  have  indeed  denied  it, 
but  to  this  denial  they  have  been  led  merely  by  their 
hatred  to  Christianity. 

{Signed^)  "A  Cheistian  Israelite." 

ADDITIONAL  STATEMENTS  AS  TO  THE  TRIADS  OF  THE  GENTILES. 

Mr.  Faber,  in  his  great  work  on  the  Pagan  Mythology, 
gives  the  following  account  in  confirmation  of  his  views 
of  the  triads  of  the  Gentiles.  His  statement  is  condensed. 
As  the  earth  after  the  deluge  was  divided  between  the 
three  sons  of  Noah,  who  were  worshipped  in  after  times 


120  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

as  the  tliree  great  gods,  Koah  being  the  great  Father 
who  had  thus  triplicated  himself,  so  we  find  this  fact  jDer- 
vading  all  nations  and  systems  of  religion  growing  out 
of  it. 

Among  the  Hindoos  there  is  the  Monad,  a  first  great 
father  Brahm,  and  the  Triad,  Brahma,  Yislmn  and  Siva. 
Among  the  Buddhists,  whether  in  India,  China,  or  else- 
where, there  is  the  selfsame  triplicating  father,  whether 
called  Buddha,  or  Fohi,  or  by  any  other  name.  The  Tar- 
tars worshipped  a  triplicated  Deity,  under  three  several 
names.  The  Peruvians,  whose  ancestors  probabl}'^  crossed 
over  from  Asia,  had  the  same  idea  of  a  God  who  was 
three  in  one  and  one  in  three,  worshipping  the  sun  and 
air  under  three  difi'erent  images  and  names.  The  Per- 
sians had  their  Ormazd,  Mithras,  and  Ahriman.  The 
Syrians  had  their  Monimus,  Aziz,  and  Ares.  The  Egyp- 
tians their  Cneph,  Eicton,  Phtha.  The  Greeks  and  Eo- 
mans  their  Jupiter,  Neptune,  and  Pluto,  three  in  number, 
but  one  in  essence,  all  springing  from  one  Chronos,  a 
fourth  and  older  god.  The  Cannaanites  had  their  self- 
triplicated  Baal.  The  Goths  their  Odin,  Yile,  and  Ye, 
who  are  described  as  the  sons  of  Bura,  the  offspring  of 
the  mysterious  Con, — that  is,  born  of  the  Ark.  The  Celts 
had  their  triple  Hu,  or  Menu.  To  the  same  class  Mr. 
Faber  and  others  ascribe  the  triads  of  the  Orphic,  Py- 
thagorean, and  Platonic  schools,  and  the  imperial  triad 
ot  the  old  Chaldean  and  Babylonian  philosophy. 

The  poets  and  philosophers  could  easily  lay  hold  of 
these  traditions,  and  mingle  them  with  their  fables  and 
systems  so  as  to  make  them  very  difi'erent  from  the  origi- 
nal facts  from  which  they  were  drawn. 

To  the  above  we  add  the  opinion  of  Sir  Matthew  Hale, 
in  his  great  work  "  On  the  Primitive  Origination  of  Man- 
kind." 

In  regard  to  the  expression,  "Let  us  make  man  in  our 


INTIMATIONS   OF  THE   TRINITY.  121 

image,  after  our  likeness,"  some  of  the  ancients,  lie 
says,  tlionglit  that  this  declared  an  actual  conference  with 
some  angelic  beings,  and  that  Plato  borrowed  his  notion 
on  the  subject  from  the  history  of  Moses,  or  some  tradi- 
tion of  it.  Plato,  he  says,  and  some  other  philosophers 
and  mythologists,  held  that  God  conferred  with  those 
whom  they  called  Dii  ex  Diis — inferior  gods — born  of  the 
greater  ones,  or  angelic  intelligences  ;  that  by  them  he 
made  the  bodies  of  men,  though  he  alone  formed  their 
souls. 

Otliers,  Sir  Matthew  says,  with  far  greater  evidence, 
think  it  was  the  deliberation  and  conclusion  of  the  three 
persons  of  the  Holy  Trinity. 


OPINION    OF   SIE   WILLIAM   JONES. 

Although  he  was  always  desirous  of  establishing  any 
affinities  between  the  Bible  and  the  sacred  books  of  India, 
yet  he  complained  that  some  of  the  missionaries  were 
foolish  enough  to  urge  "  that  the  Hindoos  were  even  now 
almost  Christians,  because  their  Bramha,  Vishnu,  and  Siva 
were  no  other  than  the  Christian  Trinity."  A  learned 
Jewish  writer  has  pointed  out  that  the  Trinitarian  God- 
head of  Christianity  differs  from  all  other  triads,  in  being 
exclusively  and  wholly  good;  whereas,  in  heathenism,  one 
of  the  three  divine  powers  was  conceived  to  be  opposed 
to  the  other  two, — that  is,  the  principle  of  evil. 


ME.    HAEDWIC'S    OPINION. 

He  thinks  that  the  Tramerti  or  Triad  of  India  was  the 
result  of  an  endeavor  to  regain  the  idea  of  the  unity  of 
God.  They  thought  that  Brahma,  or  the  Ineifable,  liad 
made  a  revelation  of  himself  in  nature,  in  the  three  char- 


122  THE   BIBLE  AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

acters  of  creator,  preserver,  and  destroyer,  and  attempted 
thus  to  conceive  of  God.  These  three  characters  repre- 
sented everything  that  was  divine.  These  three,  said  a 
learned  Brahmin,  have  their  phices  in  the  earth,  the  in- 
termediate region,  and  heaven,  or  fire,  air,  and  sun.  All 
other  deities  are  portions  of  these.  The  lord  of  the  crea- 
tures is  the  deity  of  all  collectively.  The  three,  Brahma, 
Vishnu,  and  Siva,  are  deemed  worthy  of  highest  honor, 
because  they  gather  up  and  place  before  the  worshipper 
everything  that  he  can  possibly  know  of  God. 

Mr.  Hardwic  protests  against  the  germ  of  the  Chris- 
tian Trinity  being  found  in  any  or  all  of  the  physical  pro- 
cesses of  nature.  He  shows  how  entirely  difterent  from 
the  Trinity  of  the  Bible  are  all  the  triads  of  the  philo- 
sophic Gentiles. 


L. 


CHAPTEE   VII. 

ON  THE  TEMPTATION  BY  THE  DEYIL,  IN  THE  FORM  OF  A  SERPENT. 

TVe  proceed  now  to  the  more  particular  consideration 
of  the  instrument  by  which  man  was  tempted  and  se- 
duced. 

If,  in  the  wisdom  of  God,  as  ah-eadj  stated,  an  order 
of  beings,  such  as  man,  of  whom  obedience  was  required, 
but  who  was  not  to  be  irresistibly  compelled  to  it ;  who 
must  be  put  on  trial,  and  of  course  exposed  to  some  temp- 
tation, though  not  with  the  view  of  enticing  him  to  sin, 
then  it  must  be  for  God  to  decide  what  the  trial  or  temp- 
tation should  be. 

While  God  solemnly  protests  that  he  does  not  tempt 
man  to  sin, — that  is,  does  not  seek  to  allure  him  to  sin, — yet 
he  proves  him  by  certain  trials,  which  are  in  one  sense 
temptations,  but  with  the  promise  of  assistance  sufficient 
for  his  preservation  from  sin.  Man  is  still  on  trial, 
though  under  diflferent  circumstances  from  those  in  which 
our  parents  are  placed.  Man,  in  his  fallen  state,  has  less 
strength  and  disposition  to  withstand  temptation,  but  then 
he  has  peculiar  and  very  great  helps  afforded  him  from 
above.  Great  things  have  been  done  for  him,  in  order  to 
his  recovery,  which  were  not  done  for  our  first  parents. 
We  have,  however,  many  enemies  which  are  tempters  to 
us. 

The  first  great  tempter  still  continues  his  malicious 
efforts  to  prevent  our  restoration.  Besides  this,  God  per- 
mits us  to  be  assailed  and  tempted  by  evil  men,  in  the 


124:  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

midst  of  whom  we  live.     He  warns  ns  against  evil  com- 
munications with  the  wicked,  lest  they  corrupt. 

If  any  object  to  the  doctrine  of  Satanic  influence,  as 
exerted  against  our  first  parents,  and  think  hardly  of  God 
for  permitting  it,  they  must  in  like  manner  complain  that 
God  permits  evil  men  to  tempt,  as  they  are  continually 
doing.  It  is  sad  to  tliink  how  many  demons  there  are 
in  human  form,  who  are  drawing  away  others,  especially 
the  young  and  inexperienced,  from  the  paths  of  virtue  and 
piety.  Some  there  are  who  deserve  to  be  ranked  with 
Beelzebub  himself.  Sometimes  they  band  themselves  to- 
gether and  become  legion.  But  there  is  One  mightier 
than  all  the  wicked  of  earth  and  hell,  who,  as  our  repre- 
sentative— the  second  Adam — was  tempted  like  as  the  first 
was,  only  without  sin.  Our  Lord,  as  we  said  in  a  previous 
chapter,  was  tempted  through  the  appetites  of  the  body, 
as  well  as  through  the  higher  cravings  of  the  soul,  in 
the  waste  howling  wilderness ;  but  for  us  he  came  off  vic- 
torious, and  Satan  fell  as  lightning  from  heaven.  In  this 
view  of  man's  nature  and  condition  on  earth,  both  before 
and  since  the  fall,  we  must  perceive  the  unsoundness  of 
such  objections  as  are  sometimes  made  to  the  Mosaic  ac- 
count of  the  temptation,  before  which  our  first  parents 
fell.  But  it  is  sometimes  complained  that  the  narrative 
is  obscure  and  defective ;  nothing  being  said,  until  we 
come  to  other  scriptures,  of  any  being  except  the  reptile 
serpent, — the  great  agent,  the  evil  spirit  not  being  alluded 
to.  This  may  readily  be  accounted  for  in  the  same 
manner  as  many  other  omissions  in  the  very  brief,  and, 
as  it  were,  short-hand  history  of  Moses,  and  may  be  ex- 
plained and  fully  justified.  Moses  was  writing  for  a 
people  who  had  received  from  their  ancestors  all  that 
Moses  told  them,  and  in  greater  fulness ;  oftentimes, 
indeed,  with  accompanying  errors,  which  in  time  had 
been  added  to  original  truth. 


THE   TEMPTATIOlSr.  125 

Moses  was  inspired  to  separate  the  truth  from  the  false- 
hood, and  record  nothing  but  what  was  necessary.  The 
Israelites  doubtless  understood  what  he  meant  when  saying 
that  the  serpent  beguiled  our  first  mother,  just  as  well  as 
we  do  who  have  all  the  other  scriptures  which  testify  to 
it.  The  world,  in  truth,  was  full  of  this  tradition  at  that 
time,  though  often  corrupted  and  turned  into  superstition. 
The  devil  had  at  this  time  more  temples  in  the  world 
than  God  himself.  He  is  called  in  scripture,  "  The  god 
of  this  world."  The  whole  world  is  represented  as  "lying 
in  wickedness, — that  is,  in  the  wicked  one."  He  is  the 
"  Prince  of  the  powers  of  the  air,"  having  many  evil 
spirits  subject  to  him,  and  leagued  with  him.  We  fight 
not,  the  apostle  says,  "  against  flesh  and  blood  only ;  but 
against  principalities  and  powers,  and  spiritual  wicked- 
nesses in  high  places."  The  wicked  and  unbelieving  of 
earth  are  declared  to  be  "  of  their  father,  the  devil." 
From  the  earliest  jjeriod  of  the  Christian  church  this  evil 
spirit  has,  at  baptism,  been  solemnly  renounced  with  all 
his  works.  Indeed,  for  a  long  time  before  Christ,  wdien 
heathen  converts  were  admitted  into  the  Jewish  church, 
by  baptism  and  circumcision,  this  form  of  renunciation 
was  used,  for  the  Jews  rightly  considered  all  the  idola- 
tries of  the  heathen  world  as  the  works  of  the  devil. 

The  thought  has  doubtless  entered  into  the  mind  when 
considering  this  painful  subject,  and  the  question  been 
asked.  What  could  have  induced  a  being  of  another  and 
perhaps  distant  world,  to  come  into  this  and  seek  the  ruin 
of  our  infant  race  ?  To  this  it  might  be  answered.  What 
can  induce  so  many  of  our  fallen  world  so  wantonly  to 
assail  the  peace  and  happiness  of  their  fellow-beings? 
Sin  is  the  moving  cause — sin,  which  is  glad  at  the  calami- 
ties of  others,  and  wishes  to  reduce  all  to  its  own  level. 
The  wise  son  of  Sirach,  a  Hebrew,  and  author  of  one  of 
those  ancient  books  which  are  sometimes  bound  up  with 


126  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

the  inspired  ones,  and  which,  though  not  allowed  to  be 
used  for  the  establishment  of  doctrine,  are  yet  sometimes 
permitted  to  be  used  for  instruction  in  manners,  tells  us 
that  "  The  devil  was  moved  of  envy"  to  seduce  man  from 
his  obedience  and  happiness ;  and  it  is  remarkable  that 
such  is  the  tradition  (as  will  be  seen)  in  many  other  na- 
tions besides  that  of  Judea. 

Our  great  English  poet  has  introduced  this  general 
persuasion,  as  a  certain  fact,  into  his  poem,  wherein  he 
sings  of  Paradise  Lost : 

"  The  infernal  serpent,  he  it  was  whose  guile, 
Stirred  up  with  envy  and  revenge,  deceived 
The  mother  of  mankind." 

"  For  now  the  thought 
Of  lost  happiness,  and  lasting  pain, 
Torments  him." 

Speaking  to  his  comrades  in  rebellion  and  suffering,  he 

says, 

"  To  do  aught  good,  never  will  be  our  task ; 
But  ever  to  do  ill,  6ur  sole  delight." 

He,  with  his  rebellious  host,  has  been  cast  out  of  heaven 
for  desii'ing  higher  station,  as  our  first  parents  were  cast 
out  of  Eden  for  a  similar  fault : 

"  To  reign  is  worth  ambition,  though  in  heU ; 
Better  to  reign  in  hell,  than  serve  in  heaven" 

was  his  motto.     Ilis  proudest  feeling  was — 

"  All  good  to  me  is  lost ; 
Evil,  be  thou  my  good." 

On  reaching  paradise,  and  seeing  the  happiness  of  Adam 
and  Eve — 


THE  TEMPTATION.  127 

"  Aside  the  devil  turned 
For  envy.     Sight  hateful,  right  tormenting !  " 

Another  of  our  old  English  poets  has  adopted  and 
forcibly  set  forth  the  same  sentiment,  viz.,  that  envy  was 
a  moving  principle  in  the  bosom  of  the  arch-fiend  of 
hell,  in  seekino-  the  destruction  of  the  hnman  race.  Mr. 
Cowley,  in  his  poem  entitled  "  Davideis,"  or  the  troubles 
of  David  during  the  persecution  of  Saul,  makes  envy 
the  chief  demon  which  infuriated  the  breast  of  Saul.  He 
takes  his  readers  down  to  the  abode  of  the  fallen  ausrels : 


'O^ 


"  Here  Lucifer,  the  mighty  captive,  reigns, 
Proud  midst  his  woes,  and  tyrant  in  his  chains." 

Myriads  of  spirits  fell  wounded  round  him  there, 

"  Since  when,  the  dismal  solace  of  their  woe 
Has  been,  weak  mankind  to  undo." 

"  Then  sought  the  tyrant  fiend  young  David's  fall, 
And  gainst  him  raised  the  powerful  rage  of  Saul. 
He  saw  the  beauties  of  his  shape  and  face  ; 
His  female  sweetness,  and  his  manly  grace. 
He  saw  the  nobler  wonders  of  his  mind ; 
Great  gifts,  which  for  great  works  he  knew  designed ; 
And  well  he  knew  what  legacy  did  place 
The  sacred  sceptre  in  blest  Judah's  race. 
From  which  the  eternal  Shiloh  was  to  spring, — 
A  knowledge  which  new  hells  to  hell  did  bring." 

Assembling  his  hosts,  he  exhorts  them  in  terrific  words 
to  aid  him  to  destroy  the  Lord's  anointed  ;  but  they  feared 
to  engage  in  it : 

"  A  dreadful  silence  filled  the  hollow  place, 
Doubling  the  native  terror  of  its  face. 
Envy,  at  last,  crawls  forth, — from  that  dire  throng, 
Of  all  the  direfullest ! 


128  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

Envy,  the  worst  of  fiends,  herself  presents ; 
Envy,  good  only  vrhen  she  herself  torments. 
She  spoke ;  all  stared  at  first,  and  made  a  pause. 
Great  Beelzebub  starts  from  his  burning  throne 
To  embrace  the  fiend. 
The  snakes  all  hissed,  the  fiends  all  murmured." 

Oispatclied  to  the  court  of  Sanl,  slie  soon  rouses  lilm  to 

fury : 

"  Alas !  poor  monarch !  you 
Slew  thousands  only,  he  ten  thousand  slew; 
Him  Israel  loves,  him  neighboring  nations  fear ; 
You  but  the  name  and  empty  title  bear." 

Thus  did  Satan,  in  the  form  of  a  serpent,  seek  to  excite 
ambition  in  the  breasts  of  our  first  parents ;  promising 
them  that  they  shoukl  be  not  only  kings,  but  gods,  if 
they  ate  of  tlie  forbidden  tree  ;  intimating,  perhaps,  that 
God  was  jealous  of  the  happiness  and  power  they  would 
gain  thereby. 

And  now,  as  to  the  form  of  that  animal  which  was 
selected  by  the  seducer  for  his  wicked  purpose,  we  re- 
mark, that  the  common  impression,  derived  from  the 
brief  and  simple  narrative  of  Moses,  is,  that  it  was  the  same 
low,  grovelling,  and  accursed  thing,  the  object  of  the 
dislike  and  abhorrence  of  all,  which  now  crawls  along  the 
earth,  and  licks  the  dust,  and  whose  poison  is  the  most 
deadly  that  can  mingle  with  the  blood  that  courses  through 
the  veins  of  man. 

But  there  is  nothing  in  the  scriptures  which  requires 
such  a  belief,  and  much  in  reason  and  in  the  general 
traditions  and  histories,  as  to  the  serpent,  to  induce  a 
contrary  opinion.  If  the  earth  was  accursed  on  account 
of  the   sin   of  Adam  ;    if,  when   the  fruit  was  plucked, 

"  Earth  felt  the  wound, 
And  Nature,  sighing  through  all  her  works, 
Gave  signs>  of  woe  that  all  was  lost ;" 


THE   SERPENT.  129 

if  thorns  and  thistles  now  grew  np  where  once  flowers 
and  fruits  and  trees  arose  spontaneously, — why  not  the  ser- 
pent be  stigmatized,  and  made  to  crawl  upon  the  earth, 
and  glide  away  from  view  ?  Once  it  was  not  only  more 
subtle  than  any  beast  of  the  field,  but  our  Lord  himself 
speaks  of  its  wisdom  in  the  same  sentence  with  the  inno- 
cence of  the  dove.  Is  it  likely  that  the  tempter  would 
choose  the  most  inferior  and  loathsome  of  the  animals 
in  paradise,  wnth  which  to  approach  our  first  mother  ? 
Would  he  not  rather  choose  one  with  which  she  was 
familiar — a  favorite,  perhaps,  in  the  garden — and  who 
would  be  heard  most  readily  ?  Such  has  ever  been  the 
impression  amongst  men,  as  will  be  shown  by  references 
to  ancient  authors. 

Our  English  bard,  who,  in  order  to  the  composition  of 
his  great  poem,  studied  all  history,  sacred  and  profane, 
and  was  a  deep  philosopher  as  well  as  divine,  describes 
the  serpent  as  moving,  not 

"  Prone  on  the  ground,  as  since,  but  on  his  rear. 
Circular  base  of  rising  folds,  that  towered, 
Fold  above  fold,  a  surging  maze.     His  head 
Crested  aloft,  and  carbuncle  his  eye, 
With  burnished  neck,  of  verdant  gold,  erect 
Amidst  his  circling  spires,  that  on  the  grass 
Floated  redundant.     Pleasing  was  his  shape. 
And  lovely." 

A  passage  from  Yirgil's  ^uead,  as  translated  by  Dry- 
den,  shows  that  very  similar  was  the  ancient  notion  of  the 
serpent.  Milton,  perhaps,  took  his  picture  from  Yirgil 
and  other  pagan  writers.  When  celebrating  the  funeral 
rites  of  his  father  Anchises,  .^neas  places  certain  offer- 
ings on  his  tomb : 

"  Scarce  had  he  finished,  when,  with  speckled  pride, 
A  serpent  from  the  tomb  began  to  glide  ; 
9 


130  THE  BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

His  hugy  bulk  on  seven  high  volumes  rolled ; 
Blue  was  his  back,  but  streaked  with  scaly  gold. 
Thus,  riding  on  his  curls,  he  seemed  to  pass 
A  rolling  fire  along,  and  singed  the  grass. 
More  various  colors  through  his  body  run 
Than  Iris,  when  her  bow  imbibes  the  sun. 
Betwixt  the  rising  altars,  and  around, 
The  sacred  monster  shot  along  the  ground  ; 
With  harmless  play  amidst  the  bowls  he  passed, 
And  with  the  lolling  tongue  assayed  the  taste. 
Thus  fed  with  holy  food,  the  wondrous  guest 
Within  the  hoUowed  tomb  retired  to  rest." 

It'  the  serpent  of  paradise  was  of  an  agreeable  form, 
was  it  not  wise  and  good  in  God  to  inflict  a  curse  upon 
its  body  and  make  it  odious  in  the  eyes  of  men,  that  the 
very  sight  of  it  might  impressively  remind  man  of  the 
sin  and  folly  of  our  first  parents  in  barkening  to  its  de- 
ceptive voice  ?  Its  degraded  state  should  elevate  our 
hopes.  We  should  see  the  destruction  of  Satan  in  its 
curse.  Even  as  it  now  is,  some  nations  are  prone  to  wor- 
ship the  serpent ;  to  this  all  history  testifies.  Satan,  the 
real  deceiver,  has  ever  used  it  for  the  purpose  of  leading 
men  into  idolatry.  How  much  more  evil  might  it  have 
done  with  a  more  pleasing  shape  ! 

None  can  deny  that  the  evil  principle  has  been  wor- 
shipped all  over  the  world,  in  some  form  or  other,  with 
a  view  to  avert  judgments  and  calamities.  Many  of  the 
philosophers,  until  the  light  of  Christianity  began  to  dawn 
upon  the  world,  believed  that  the  evil  principle  was  co- 
eval with  the  good,  and  not  equal  to  it,  yet  very  power- 
ful for  ill.  Satan  was  the  nearest  approach  to  the  philos- 
ophers' idea  of  the  evil  spirit,  and  was  permitted  by  God 
to  exert  a  certain  power  on  earth. 

But  this  evil  one  was  seldom  found  alone  among  the 
ancients,  but  rather  with  kindred  spirits.  Bishop  Stilling- 
fleet,  in  his  learned  work  "  Origines  Sacrse,"  doubts  not  that 


THE   SERPENT.  131 

the  origin  of  that  very  ancient  opinion  among  the  heathen, 
"  De  invidia  demonis,"  concerning  the  envy  of  the  devil, 
is  to  be  found  in  the  fall  of  man  to  which  Moses  refers. 
Such,  indeed,  is  the  resemblance  between  the  account  in 
Genesis  and  that  in  some  other  ancient  books,  he  says, 
that  it  was  attempted  to  charge  Moses  with  borrowing 
from  them ;  but  the  superior  antiquity  of  the  books  of 
Moses  is  too  well  established  to  admit  of  this.  Traditions 
among  the  ancient  Israelites,  and  in  other  nations,  to  the 
same  effect,  are  doubtless  true,  and  make  in  favor  of  his 
narrative. 

Plutarch  speaks  of  ancient  tradition,  that  "  there  are 
certain  wicked  and  malignant  demons  which  envy  good 
men,  and  hinder  their  pursuit  of  virtue  lest  they  should 
become  partakers  of  greater  felicity  than  they  themselves 
enjoy.  Zenocrates,  also,  commenting  on  Plutarch,  speaks 
of  the  tradition  of  "  some  great  and  potent  beings  in  the 
air,  which  are  of  a  surly  and  malignant  nature,  and  re- 
joice to  do  men  all  the  mischief  they  can."  Even  Por- 
phyry, the  great  enemy  of  Christianity,  affirms  that  ac- 
cording to  his  pagan  system  "  There  are  some  wicked  spir- 
its who  help  men  to  evil ;  but  these  very  spirits  may 
sometimes  commend  what  is  good,  lest  they  should  be  sus- 
pected of  being  what  they  really  are."  By  which,  says 
Bishop  Stillingfleet,  we  have  a  good  account  of  whatever 
was  commendable  in  the  heathen  oracles,  as,  he  says, 
Jamblicus  himself  confesses. 

The  Bishop  dwells  emphatically  on  the  fact  that  wher- 
ever the  devil  had  most  power,  and  idolatry  and  wicked- 
ness most  prevailed,  there  the  symbol  or  sign  of  the  ser- 
pent was  most  used.  Thus,  also,  the  satirist  Perseus  says, 
"  Pinge  duos  angues,  pueri,  sacer  est  locus."  "  In  a  short 
time,"  says  an  able  writer,  "  the  power  of  the  devil  was 
such  that  he  outstripped  God  himself  in  the  number  and 
splendor  of  his  temples,  the  number  of  his  votaries,  and 


132  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

the  pomp  of  his  worship."  And  this  was  almost  always 
accompanied  with  more  or  less  of  the  symbol  of  the  ser- 
pent. 

That  the  ancient  Jews  thus  understood  the  part  that 
the  devil  had  in  the  fall  of  man,  is  evident  from  what  we 
read  in  the  Book  of  Wisdom,  where  it  is  written  that 
"Through  the  envy  of  the  devil,  death  came  into  the 
world ;"  that  "  Error  and  darkness  had  their  beginning 
with  sinners ;"  that  "  By  the  woman  came  the  beginning 
of  sin." 

In  the  ancient  mysteries  of  Greece  it  is  well  known 
that  the  people  used  to  carry  about  a  serpent,  and  were 
instructed  to  cry  out  Eva^  whereby  the  devil  seemed  to 
exult  over  the  fall  of  our  first  mother.  Even  now,  says 
Stackhouse,  in  idolatrous  nations,  there  are  evidences  of 
this  triumph  of  the  devil  under  the  form  of  a  serpent. 

Melanchthon,  the  reformer,  tells  of  some  priests  in  Asia 
who  "  carry  about  a  serpent  in  a  brazen  vessel ;  and  as  they 
attend  it  with  a  great  deal  of  music,  and  the  charms  of 
verse,  the  serpent  lifts  up  its  head,  opens  its  mouth,  and 
thrusts  out  the  head  of  a  beautiful  virgin  ;  the  devil,  in 
this  manner,  glorying  over  the  miscarriage  of  our  first 
mother."  Similar  accounts  are  given  by  travellers  in  the 
"West  Indies. 

Mr.  Faber's  account  of  the  origin  and  import  of  the 
worship  of  the  serpent  is  confirmed  by  many  other  mytho- 
logical writers,  both  ancient  and  modern.  Its  history,  he 
says,  is  curious  and  perplexing.  It  is  a  symbol  of  evil, 
and  of  good  also. 

The  words  cherubim  and  seraphim  are  of  similar  mean- 
ing, but  seraphim  is  the  name  of  the  fiery  fiying  serpent  of 
the  wilderness. 

Yarious  legends  show  that  the  worship  of  the  serpent 
was  in  part  derived  from  the  form  in  Avhich  Satan  de- 
ceived our  first  parents. 


THE  SERPENT.  133 

Plutarch  says  the  great  serpent  Python  signifies  destruc- 
tion. Porphyry,  and  otliers  among  the  Greeks,  speak  of 
"  evil  demons  "  whose  wish  is  to  be  gods,  and  the  power 
which  presides  over  them  aspires  to  be  the  greatest  of 
gods ;  but  the  Most  High,  witli  a  mighty  arm,  restrains 
their  machinations. 

In  the  Gothic  theology,  the  god  Thor,  whom  they  es- 
teem as  their  middle  divinity,  or  mediator  between  God 
and  man,  is  said  to  have  "  bruised  the  head  of  the  great  ser- 
pent with  his  mace,  but  so  severe  was  to  be  the  contest, 
that  he  himself  would  be  suffocated  with  the  flood  of 
venom  from  the  mouth  of  the  serpent."  What  can  this 
mean  but  the  seed  of  the  woman  bruising  the  serpent's 
head,  and  the  serpent  biting  his  heel  ? 

In  India,  also,  two  sculptured  figures  are  yet  extant, 
in  one  of  their  oldest  pagodas,  one  of  which  represents 
Chrishua,  an  incarnation  of  Yishnu,  trampling  on  the 
crushed  head  of  the  serpent,  while  the  other  exliibits  the 
poisonous  reptile  encircling  the  deity  in  its  folds,  and 
biting  his  heel. 

But  the  serpent  was  also  used  as  a  symbol  of  good. 
"  The  word  seraph,  in  Hebrew,"  says  Mr.  Faber,  "  signi- 
fies a  flying  serpent, — an  animal  of  great  beauty,  and 
shining  like  burnished  gold,  and  exhibiting  the  semblance 
of  a  face,  as  the  raj'S  of  the  sun  strike  upon  it,  when  it 
wings  its  way  through  the  liquid  air."  He  thinks  that 
this  and  the  cherubim  may  have  been  confounded,  and 
thus  it  may  have  become  the  symbol  of  good  also. 

One  of  the  Jewish  rabbis  observes  that  this  is  the 
mistake  of  our  holy  language,  that  a  serpent  is  called 
seraph  as  an  angel  is  called  seraph',  and  it  has  been 
imagined  by  some  that  Satan  tempted  Eve  under  the 
form  of  one  of  those  splendid  winged  serpents  which  are 
denominated  seraphim.  Hence  it  is  that  the  serpent,  or 
the  image  of  it,  is  used  in  the  pagan  worship,  sometimes 


184  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

representing  the  evil  principle,  sometimes  the  principle 
of  good. 

Perhaps  the  sacred  writer  may  have  alluded  to  this 
when  speaking  of  him  as  "  appearing  in  the  garb  of  an 
angel  of  light." 

It  has  been  asserted  by  soine  of  the  enemies  of  Chris- 
tianity, that  the  doctrine  of  angelic  beings,  both  good  and 
evil,  was  borrowed  from  the  Medo-Persians,  who  were  in 
possession  of  Babylon  during  the  seventy  years  of  the 
Jewish  captivity,  and  that  it  is  a  part  of  the  Medo-Persian 
system  of  Zoroaster.  This  system  supposed  the  existence 
of  an  evil  principle  from  all  eternity,  coexisting  with  a 
good  one.  Man,  as  originally  formed  by  Ormazd  the 
good  one,  was  endowed  with  noble  qualities,  and  bidden 
to  approve  himself  the  lord  of  this  lower  world  by  culti- 
vating purity  in  thought,  in  word,  and  in  action,  and  by 
making  a  constant  warfare  with  his  enemies,  the  Devas. 
At  first,  the  parents  of  mankind  were  humble,  and  de- 
voted to  the  service  of  Ormazd — were  innocent  and  happy. 
They  were  destined,  also,  to  more  perfect  happiness  ;  but 
Ahriman,  the  sleepless  enemy  of  man  and  purity,  de- 
scending earthwards  in  the  form  of  a  serpent,  plotted 
their  corruption,  and  ere  long,  by  means  of  fruit  derived 
from  his  own  province  of  creation,  he  seduced  them  from 
their  true  allegiance.  The  obvious  resemblance  between 
this  and  the  Mosaic  account  would  incline  us  to  believe 
that  the  Persians  borrowed  from  the  Jews,  and  not  the 
Jews  from  the  Persians,  if  one  did  borrow  from  the  other. 
But  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  both  received  it, 
by  tradition,  from  an  early  common  source  ;  in  the  one 
the  tradition  being  preserved  in  its  purity  by  the  special 
providence  of  God,  through  Moses  and  the  chosen  people, 
in  the  other  being  intermingled  with  fable.  Babylon  was 
to  the  Jews  a  furnace,  in  which  they  were  purified ;  and, 


THE   SEKPENT.  185 

they  came  out  of  it,  not  corrupted,  but  purified,  and  never 
again  returned  to  idolatry.  There  is  an  essential  differ- 
ence between  the  two  systems, — that  of  the  Bible  and 
the  Medo-Persian.  In  the  one  there  is  a  necessary  eter- 
nally-existing principle  of  evil,  coeval  with  the  good  one, 
and  marring  the  happiness  of  God's  creatures  ;  in  the 
other — the  Jewish  system — the  devil,  the  tempter,  is  a 
creature,  a  fallen  being  like  man,  whose  fall — the  origin 
of  whose  sin — is  involved  in  the  same  mystery  with  that 
of  man.  He  becomes  fiendlike,  after  the  same  manner 
with  some  men,  and  seeks  to  communicate  of  his  sin  and 
misery  to  others.  Satan  is,  indeed,  a  liar  and  a  murderer 
from  the  beginning,  but  not  from  eternity,  from  unavoid- 
able necessity.  Our  Lord  says,  "  He  abode  not  in  the 
truth,"  which  shows  that  he  was  once  in  the  truth,  and 
neither  a  liar  nor  murderer  at  that  time. — John  viii. 
4:4:.  The  existence  and  power  of  the  evil  one  are  made 
more  and  more  apparent  as  the  human  race  advances, 
and  the  scriptures  reveal  spiritual  and  invisible  things  to 
us.  "The  Son  of  God  was  manifested  that  he  might  de- 
stroy the  works  of  the  devil." — 1  John  iii.  8.  They  were 
the  works  of  that  "  old  serpent,  w^hich  is  the  devil  and 
Satan." — Rev.  xx.  2.  It  has  been  well  said,  that  "  till  the 
mightier  power  of  good  was  revealed,  we  were,  in  mercy, 
not  suff'ered  to  know  how  mighty  was  the  power  of  evil." 
"Wherefore,  at  the  time  of  our  Lord's  appearance  on  earth, 
the  works  of  the  devil  were  more  open  and  daring  than 
ever  before. 

In  relation  to  the  form  of  his  first  appearance,  Mr. 
Hardwic,  after  a  most  elaborate  search  into  all  ancient 
history  and  tradition,  says,  "  There  is  found  to  be  a  most 
singular  concert  in  east  and  west,  north  and  south,  in  civ- 
ilized and  semi-barbarous  countries,  in  the  old  world  and 
the  new,  not  only  to  the  fact  that  serpents  were  somehow 
associated  with  the  ruin  of  the  human  family,  but  that 


136  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

serpents  so  employed  were  vehicles  of  a  malignant  per- 
sonal spirit,  by  whatever  name  he  w^as  described." 

While  on  this  subject,  it  may  be  well  to  consider  the 
use  of  the  words  devil  and  devils  in  the  New  Testament. 
Mr.  Faber,  agreeing  with  many  other  learned  men,  says, 
"  It  is  a  remarkable  thing,  though  not  perhaps  very  gen- 
erally observed,  that  throughout  the  whole  New  Testa- 
ment the  word  devil,  as  applied  to  a  fallen  spirit,  never 
occurs  in  the  plural  number.  Our  English  translation, 
indeed,  repeatedly  speaks  plurally  of  devils,  but  such  is 
not  the  case  in  the  Greek  original."  The  word  diabolos, 
he  says,  as  applied  to  a  fallen  spirit,  is  never  used  plurally 
in  the  New  Testament.  The  word  rendered  devils  in 
the  original  is  not  diaboli,  but  demonia,  or  demones  ;  so 
that,  as  the  singular,  diabolos,  is  rendered  devil,  so  demon 
and  demonia  ought  to  have  been  rendered  demon,  or 
demons.  A  distinction  is  made  between  a  demon  and  a 
devil.  A  demon  is  the  disembodied  spirit  of  a  human 
being,  whether  it  be  good  or  bad,  gracious  or  malignant. 
The  heathen  worshipped  the  souls  of  deceased  heroes. 
These  were  their  gods — ^no  gods,  scripture  called  them  ; 
these  inspired  their  oracles ;  these  were  the  good  or  evil 
geniuses  which  were  supposed  to  attend  upon  some  men 
upon  earth  ;  these  were  the  devils  against  sacrificing  to 
which  we  are  warned  in  the  New  Testament. 

But  because  the  devil  is  never  spoken  of  but  in  the 
singular  number,  are  we  to  infer  from  it  that  there  is  but 
one  devil  ?  Far  from  it.  We  read  of  the  devil  and  his 
angels,  for  wliom  hell  was  prepared,  and  unto  whom  the 
wicked  of  earth  shall  be  joined  in  the  last  day.  We  read 
of  the  devil  as  prince  of  the  power  of  the  air  ;  prince  of 
this  world  ;  god  of  this  world.  St.  Paul,  in  his  epistle  to 
the  Ephesians,  exhorts  us  to  "  put  on  the  whole  armor  of 
God,  that  we  may  be  able  to  stand  against  the  wiles  of 
the  devil.      For  we  wrestle  not  against  flesh  and  blood, 


THE   SERPENT.  137 

but  against  principalities,  against  powers,  against  the 
rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this  world,  against  spiritual  wick- 
ednesses in  high  places" — or,  as  some  render  it,  "  in  the 
higher  region  of  the  heavens."  The  devil,  therefore,  is  to 
be  regarded  as  the  master-spirit,  who  leads  his  evil  angels 
in  all  wickedness  and  rebellion.  Of  course  it  will  be 
seen,  from  the  foregoing,  that  there  are  those  who  agree 
with  some  of  the  fathers — among  them  Justin  and  Ath- 
enagoras — that  some  of  the  demoniacal  possessions  of 
scripture  are  to  be  ascribed  to  the  unclean  and  wicked 
spirits  who  were  once  in  human  bodies,  and  were  per- 
mitted to  torment  those  who  were  yet  in  the  flesh.  We 
do  not  enter  into  the  discussion,  but  merely  state  the  fact 
that  such  an  opinion  has  existed,  and  still  exists. 

"We  conclude  our  remarks  with  some  passages  from  tlie 
most  complete  and  useful  sketch  of  Satan  and  his  works 
that  we  have  met  with.  The  present  bishop  of  Maine,  in 
a  late  charge  to  the  clergy  of  Maine  on  the  personality, 
kingdom,  and  power  of  Satan,  thus  speaks  :  "  Scriptural 
as  is  the  belief  (in  Satan),  it  did  not  originate  with  even 
the  earliest  of  the  sacred  writings ;  it  was  in  the  world, 
like  the  belief  in  God  and  the  existence  of  good  angels, 
before  Moses  or  Abraham — before  paradise  was  lost.  It 
is  presupposed  in  the  Bible,  which  does  not  describe  the 
author  of  human  sin,  nor  formally  assert  his  origin  or  his 
being,  but  tells  his  deeds  and  warns  against  his  devices." 
On  the  subject  of  the  supremacy  of  Satan,  he  says  :  "  To 
believe  the  guilt  of  evil  men  and  evil  demons,  and  yet 
hold  the  primacy  of  Satan  incredible  merely  for  the  in- 
tensity of  his  wickedness,  would  be  as  though  we  should 
see  armies  ravaging,  plundering,  slaying — feel  all  the  hor- 
rors of  their  atrocious  warfare — and  yet  be  astonished 
when,  at  their  head,  the  invading  despot  or  iron  com- 
mander should  appear."  "  The  universal  tendency  of 
weaker  natures  is  to  rally  round  the  stronger."     "  If  a 


138  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

leader,  in  after  times,  possessing  the  practical  intellect  of 
Napoleon,  should  raise  his  standard,  though  his  guilt  were 
tenfold  beyond  the  guilt  of  that  great  slayer  of  mankind, 
who  can  doubt  that  he  would  be  surrounded  by  myriads 
of  men,  ready  to  pour  out  their  lives  on  the  battle-field  at 
his  feet?"  After  repeating  the  exhortation  of  the  apos- 
tle to  gird  ourselves  to  battle  against  spiritualities  and 
powers,  etc.,  he  adds :  "  The  nature  or  degree  of  the 
exaltation  of  him  whom  the  scriptures  not  dimly  delineate 

as 

'  O'er  the  rest 
In  shape  and  gesture  proudly  eminent,' 

they  have  not  defined ;  but  whether  it  be  more  or  less, 
what  motive  can  remain,  what  degree  of  probability  can 
be  asserted,  after  such  a  display  of  many  adversaries,  for 
rejecting  the  far  more  frequent  and  more  distinct  allu- 
sions to  that  one  ? " 

To  the  wdiole  charge  I  refer  my  readers,  and  especially  my 
brethren  of  the  clergy,  as  one  of  the  most  profitable  treatises 
on  a  subject  not  now  so  frequently  and  emphatically  dwelt 
upon  as  by  the  sacred  writers,  the  early  fathers,  and  the  faith- 
ful reformers.  At  an  early  period  of  my  life,  after  heart- 
ily embracing  the  Christian  faith,  I  met  with  an  ingenious 
argument  intended  to  show  that  all  the  demoniacal  pos- 
sessions mentioned  in  the  Bible  were  only  bodily  infirmi- 
ties, or  mere  impositions.  For  a  time  I  was  led  astray  by 
the  argument ;  but  as  often  as  I  took  up  ray  Bible — 
especially  the  New  Testament — and  read  the  plain  narra- 
tive therein  concerning  these  unhappy  possessions,  and 
the  miracles  by  which  they  were  cast  out,  I  found  the 
theory  untenable.  I  have  been  only  strengthened  in  my 
conviction  of  the  realities  of  those  scriptural  cases  by 
finding  how  universal  is  the  consent  of  mankind  to  the 
evil  influence  of  wicked  beings  of  another  order,  although 
60  small  a  part  ascribed  to  them  be  true. 


CHAPTER     YIII 


ON    THE    GARDEN    OF    EDEN. 


The  place  selected  by  the  Creator  himself,  and  adorned 
and  enriched  by  his  own  hand,  for  the  residence  of  our 
first  parents,  must  have  been  a  remarkable  and  deeply 
interesting  spot.  Beautiful  and  delightful  as  many  others 
were,  and  still  are,  as  to  soil,  productions,  and  scenery, 
this  must  have  been  surpassingly  so.  It  was  doubtless 
filled  with  all  the  means  of  present  happiness  to  innocent 
and  holy  beings,  and  well  calculated  to  satisfy  them, 
especially  when  the  presence  and  society  of  God  himself 
were  superadded. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  curiosity  of  men  in  after 
ages,  even  to  the  present  time,  should  be  exercised  in 
ascertaining  its  exact  location,  even  though  its  character 
and  appearance  may  have  been  somewhat  afiected  by  the 
deluge,  and  yet  more  by  the  lapse  of  succeeding  ages 
and  the  agricultural  operations  of  man.  God  has,  per- 
haps wisely,  concealed  the  exact  position  from  us,  even  as 
he  hid  the  body  of  Moses  lest  it  should  be  worshipped  by 
men,  so  prone  as  they  are  to  idolatry. 

There  are  many  circumstances,  however,  which  enable 
us  to  form  a  sufiiciently  accurate  idea  of  the  location  for  all 
purposes  of  gratifying  an  allowable  curiosity ;  thus  fur- 
nishing, also,  some  proofs  of  the  scripture  history  addi- 
tional to  those  previously  possessed.  That  our  first  parents, 
after  being  driven  from  paradise  and  ever  after  excluded 
from  it,  continued  to  hover  around  the  sacred  spot,  and 


140  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

that  many  of  tlieir  descendants  occupied  that  region,  is 
so  probable  a  circumstance  that  few  would  be  found  to 
dispute  it* 

That  it  was  near  this  place  that  righteous  Noah  dwelt, 
and  built  the  sacred  ark  ;  that  mount  Ararat,  on  which 
the  vessel  rested,  was  near  to  it ;  that  Noah  and  his  sons, 
descending  from  the  ark,  here  offered  sacrifices,  and  here 
pitched  their  tents  or  reared  their  first  dwellings,  is  ren- 
dered most  probable  by  many  facts  and  traditions,  some 
of  which  will  be  mentioned. 

Considering  the  long  lives  of  our  forefathers,  before 
and  after  the  flood,  it  is  most  worthy  of  our  belief  that 
the  localities  of  the  garden  of  Eden  and  of  Mount  Ararat 
should  have  been  well  known  to  JSToah,  unto  whom  one 
of  the  grandsons  of  Adam  might  have  shown  them  ;  and 
to  Abraham,  to  whom  one  of  the  sons  of  ISToah  may  have 
pointed  them. out. 

There  can  not  be  any  mistake  as  to  the  part  of  the 
world  where  the  first  of  the  antediluvian  and  postdiluvian 
nations  dwelt.  No  one  thinks  of  placing  them  in  Europe, 
or  Africa,  or  the  more  eastern  parts  of  Asia,  where  the 
millions  of  Hindoos  and  Chinese  have  long  swarmed. 

From  that  disposition  of  cities  and  nations  which  leads 
them  to  put  in  a  claim  for  the  birthplace  and  residence  of 
great  men,  and  the  occurrence  of  remarkable  events,  some 
may  be  found  who  claim  the  garden  of  Eden  and  Mount 
Ararat  as  belonging  to  their  ancestors,  whose  pretensions, 
however,  are  entirely  disregarded,  as  unworthy  of  con- 
sideration. By  general  consent,  not  merely  of  those  who 
admit  the  Mosaic  account,  but  of  many  other  most  relia- 

*  Mr.  Shuckford,  in  his  "  Connection  between  Sacred  and  Profane  History," 
says,  in  vol.  ii.,  p.  135,  note  :  "It  may  seem  to  us  a  great  retrospect  to  look 
back  from  Abraham  to  Adam's  habitation  ;"  but  adds,  "  Abraham  might  con- 
verse for  many  years  with  Shem,  Shem  with  Lamech,  and  Lamech  with  Adam  ;" 
and  he  therefore  says,  "  It  would  not  be  more  wonderful  than  for  one  of  us  to 
know  the  habitation  of  his  father's  grandfather." 


ON   THE   GARDEN   OF   EDEN.  141 

ble  authorities,  the  garden  of  Eden  must  have  been  near 
the  sources  of  the  two  great  rivers,  the  Euphrates  and  the 
Tigris  or  Hiddekel  mentioned  by  Moses,  and  which  are 
still  well  known  as  taking  their  rise  in  the  mountains  ol 
Armenia. 

Moses  does  indeed  mention  two  other  rivers  in  connec- 
tion with  the  garden  of  Eden — Pison  and  Gihon — of  which 
nothing  is  now  known,  there  being  no  signs  of  them. 
They  must  have  dried  up,  or  sunk  in  the  sand  or  morasses 
of  the  East,  as  other  rivers  have  been  ;  or  they  must  have 
been  swallowed  up  by  the  remaining  two,  at  the  place 
whence  Moses  says  they  became  parted  into  four  streams, 
after  passing  through  the  garden  of  Eden. 

Moses  would  never  have  asserted  their  existence,  and 
jeopardized  his  reputation  as  an  historian,  if  there  were 
none  such  in  the  land.  Some  persons  are  at  a  loss  to 
understand  what  he  means  by  saying  of  one  of  them, 
viz.,  Gihon,  that  "  it  compasseth  tlie  whole  land  of  Ethi- 
opia." Their  surprise  will  be  removed  by  the  state- 
ment that  there  were  two  Ethiopias  mentioned  in  scrip- 
ture and  other  histories — one  in  Africa,  and  one  in 
Asia.  That  in  Asia  was  comparatively  a  small  tract, 
and  was  doubtless  bounded  by  the  river  Gihon  while 
it  continued  to  flow.  As  almost  all  the  rivers  in  the 
world  take  their  rise  in  some  elevated,  mountainous  re- 
gion, and  thence  descend  into  the  more  level  country 
to  pass  into  the  seas,  so  it  has  ever  been  believed  that 
the  garden  of  Eden  was  in  some  such  high  region, 
on  some  rich  and  commanding  slope  or  flat,  with 
mountains  near,  and  the  river  flowing  through  it. 
Moses  records,  that  a  river  went  out  of  Eden,  to 
water  the  garden  ;  that  is,  a  river  went  out  from  the 
country  of  Eden,  which  was  above  and  around  the  gar- 
den, and  passed  through  it,  watering  it.  It  is  proba- 
ble that  it  was  small  in  its  rise  and  early  progress,  but, 


142  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

after  passing  through  the  garden,  it  parted  into  four 
heads,  or  streams,  and  became  the  four  streams  men- 
tioned in  Genesis. 

Mr.  Faber  and  some  others  think  that  it  became  a 
lake  at  the  foot  of  a  high  region,  from  which  it  descended, 
and  from  this  lake,  or  reservoir,  issued  into  four  separate 
rivers,  which,  in  their  passage  to  the  gulf,  became  the 
great  rivers  Euphrates  and  Hiddekel,  as  well  as  those  lesser 
ones  which  have  disappeared.  Mr.  Faber,  speaking  of 
the  opinion  of  some  commentators  who  would  locate 
paradise  in  the  dead  flat  country  below  Babylon,  says, 
that  "  Such  a  position  might  indeed  rival  the  beauties  of 
Holland  and  Batavia,  but  they  would  be  physically  in- 
capable of  ravishing  any  eyes  but  those  of  a  Dutch  bur- 
gomaster." On  the  other  hand,  he  says,  "  No  tract  of 
country  could  possibly  produce  more  exquisitely  beautiful 
and  romantic  scenery  than  one  (like  that  he  advocates) 
which  contained  a  stream  running  through  a  finely- 
wooded  vale  into  a  glassy  lake,  and  afterwards  discharg- 
ing itself  by  four  rivulets,  murmuring  through  the  same 
number  of  rocky  glens."  Who  would  not  choose  for  his 
residence 

"  Some  fair  eminence,  where  ether  pure 
Surrounds  him,  and  elysian  prospects  rise  "  ? 

More  modern  travellers  represent  this  region  still  as  being 
eminently  the  most  interesting  and  fertile  in  the  East. 
Milton  calls  paradise  "  The  champaign  head  of  a  steep 
wilderness," — speaks  of  it  as 

"  A  happy  rural  seat  of  various  view." 

"  While  murmuring  waters  fall 
Down  the  slope  hills,  dispersed,  or  in  a  lake." 

The  only  formidable  competitor  with  Armenia  for  the 


ON  THE   GARDEN   OF  EDEN.  143 

location  of  paradise  and  Ararat,  is  Moimt  Meru,  in  the 
north  of  India,  one  of  the  highest  hills  of  the  Indian  Cau- 
casus, where  the  celebrated  Ganges  takes  its  rise.  There 
are  some  remarkable  traditions  in  connexion  with  this 
place,  touching  the  residence  of  the  human  race  and  the 
resting  of  the  ark,  which  serve  to  confirm  the  Mosaic 
account  of  the  garden  of  Eden,  and  of  certain  rivers 
flowing  from  it ;  and  also  the  appulse  of  the  ark,  although 
they  will  not  change  the  general  opinion  as  to  the  loca- 
tion of  paradise  and  Ararat.  Moses  does  not  tell  us 
where  Ararat  was,  but  writes  as  to  those  who  were  already 
well  acquainted  with  its  geography.  Some  Hindoo  legends 
favor  the  idea  that  it  was  one  of  the  Caucasian  mountains, 
and  all  the  descriptions  of  it  agree  with  the  Mosaic  account 
of  Eden. 

The  summit  of  this  mountain  is  a  circular  plain  of  large 
extent,  surrounded  by  hills.  They  call  it  a  celestial  earth 
— the  former  residence  of  the  gods.  They  say  some 
strange  things  about  four  rivers  issuing  from  it,  and  about 
a  tree  which  produced  wonderful  effects  upon  knowledge 
and  happiness.  The  Ganges  is  one  of  these  rivers.  Their 
sacred  books  declare  that  the  first  Menu,  whom  they 
called  Adhna,  as  they  did  his  wife  Iva,  lived  in  that 
region.  The  first  Menu,  or  Adima,  was  the  son  of  the 
Self-existent,  and  lived  before  the  second  Menu,  in  whose 
time  the  flood  occurred.  The  Mussulmans  of  that  region 
have  the  same  legends  about  the  first  parents.  They  say, 
with  the  Buddhists,  that  our  first  parents  continued  to 
dwell  long  around  and  upon  the  holy  mountain,  but  that 
the  wicked  descendants  of  a  fratricidal  brother  were  only 
allowed  to  dwell  at  the  foot  of  it,  while  those  of  the  other 
brother  occupied  a  higher  position.  All,  however,  agree 
in  this, — the  ark  rested  near  where  the  first  parents  lived. 

The  Buddhists  of  Thibet  have  a  tradition  of  a  tree 
of  knowledge  in  their  terrestrial  paradise,  bearing  the  fruit 


144:  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

of  immortality,  which  they  call  amrita,  and  the  Greeks 
ambrosia.  It  is  said  to  adjoiu  fom-  vast  rocks,  from  which 
flow  four  rivers. 

One  thing  is  certain,  that  thronghont  the  whole  world 
the  most  sacred  places  for  worship  have  been  high  hills, 
mountains,  and  groves ;  and  that  the  heathen  always  rep- 
resented their  gods  as  dwelling  on  some  lofty  summit, — 
which  favors  the  opinion  that  the  garden  of  Eden,  as  well 
as  Mount  Ararat,  was  in  an  elevated  country ;  that  they 
were  either  the  same  or  very  near  each  other — the  moun- 
tain perhaps  overlooking  the  chosen  spot  where  our  first 
parents  resided,  and  near  which  Adam  and  Noah  after- 
wards lived. 

In  the  Gothic  theology  which  was  brought  from  the 
East,  we  have  also  an  account  of  a  celebrated  tree  which 
was  the  fountain  of  wisdom  and  knowledge,  with  an  in- 
fernal serpent  ever  gnawing  at  its  root.  The  celebrated 
garden  of  the  Hesperides  (of  which  the  poets  sing)  with 
its  golden  apples,  guarded  by  a  serpent,  is  not  without 
reason  thought  to  have  had  its  origin  from  the  garden  of 
Eden,  however  much  diversified. 

The  tradition  concerning  Mount  Parnassus  has  doubt- 
less the  same  source.  It  was  once  tenanted  by  a  mighty 
serpent  which  had  the  power  of  speech,  and  used  to  de- 
liver oracular  responses,  before  the  establishment  of  the 
Delphic  Oracle. 

The  chief  deity  who  resided  there  was  the  god  of 
knowledge,  who  slew  the  serpent.  As  to  the  worship  of 
gods  on  mountains,  Bishop  Potter,  in  his  "Antiquities  of 
Greece,"  says  that  the  Greeks  and  most  other  nations  wor- 
shipped their  gods  on  the  tops  of  high  mountains.  Strabo 
says  the  same  of  the  Persians.  Zenophon  records  that 
Cyrus  sacrificed  to  Jupiter  and  the  Sun,  and  the  rest  of 
the  gods,  upon  the  summits  of  mountains.     Balak  car- 


ON  THE  GARDEN  OF  EDEN.  145 

ries  Baalain  to  tlie  top  of  first  one  mountain,  and  then 
another,  in  order  to  get  him  to  curse  Israel. 

Abraham,  at  the  command  of  God,  carries  his  son  to 
Mount  Moriah,  one  of  the  mountains  about  Jerusalem, 
perhaps  Mount  Zion  itself.  Ilomer  speaks  of  the  worship 
of  Jupiter  and  other  gods,  on  high  places.  As  to  Apollo 
he  sajs, 

"  Thine  all  the  caverns  and  the  topmost  cliffs 
Of  lofty  mountains." 

Tacitus  speaks  of  mountains  so  high  that  there  are 
no  places  where  the  gods  could  so  easily  hear  prayer, 
and  that  the  priests  chose  such  places  for  that  reason. 
Although  these  high  places  were  at  first  selected  out  of 
honor  to  the  elevated  ground  on  which  the  garden  of 
Eden  stood  and  on  which  Noah's  ark  rested,  yet  we 
know  what  a  snare  it  became  to  the  people  of  God  ; 
what  abominations  the  high  places  of  Israel  became, 
being  perverted  to  the  worship  of  all  the  gods  of  the 
heathen — the  principal  of  these  being,  as  many  think, 
none  other  than  Adam,  JSToah,  and  their  sons.  And  when 
no  such  high  places  were  to  be  found,  still  there  was  in 
the  structure  of  their  temples  and  pyramids  an  imitation 
of  the  same ;  and  in  sandy  deserts  groves  would  be  estab- 
lished seeming  to  vie  with  paradise  itself. 

From  the  above  and  much  more  that  might  be  said,  it 
is  evident  that  the  fact  of  an  earthly  paradise,  the  habita- 
tion of  our  first  parents,  is  one  to  which  traditions  and 
the  religious  observances  of  all  ancient  and  many  modern 
nations  point  with  unerring  hand. 

As  to  the  locality  of  Mount  Ararat,  which  is  so  gene- 
rally identified  with  the  garden  of  Eden,  I  w^ill  only  add 
that  Berosus,  Polyhistor,  and  other  old  pagan  writers 
say  that  the  second  father  of  mankind  (ISToah)  was  saved 
in  an  ark  or  ship,  which  rested  on  one  of  the  mountains 
10 


146  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

of  Armenia.  Josephns,  tlie  celebrated  Jewish  historian, 
says  the  same.  Such  also  was  the  opinion  of  Jerome, 
Epiphanius,  and  other  early  fathers  of  the  Christian 
chnrch. 

That  the  place  where  our  first  parents  were  made  by 
the  hands  of  God,  where  they  lived  for  some  time  the 
period  not  known,  and  where  they  worshipped  God, 
should  be  copied  in  after  ages  ;  that  the  temples  of  religion 
should  be  surrounded  by  groves  like  those  which  we 
may  well  suppose  environed  and  shaded  the  garden  of 
Eden,  is  so  probable  a  circumstance,  that  none  will  hesi- 
tate to  accept  as  a  fact  what  is  said  of  the  sacred  groves 
of  the  heathen  upon  their  high  places,  and  wherever 
their  temples  or  oracles  were  found.  The  Elysian  fields 
of  the  ancients  were  copies  of  the  sacred  groves,  and  both 
were  drawn  no  doubt  from  the  garden  or  paradise  of  our 
first  parents. 

And  even  when  these  temples  were  in  flat  countries, 
barren  and  sultry,  they  would,  either  by  the  hand  of  art 
cover  them  with  verdure  and  trees,  or  else  select  some 
oasis  or  green  sjiot  in  the  desert.  Thus  Quintus  Curtius 
gives  us  the  following  account  of  a  grove  of  Amon  or 
Osiris  in  Africa  :  "  The  consecrated  habitation  of  the  deity 
was,  incredible  as  it  may  seem,  situated  in  the  midst 
of  a  vast  desert,  and  it  was  shaded  from  the  sun  by  so 
luxuriant  a  vegetation  that  the  solar  beams  could  scarce- 
ly penetrate  through  the  thickness  of  the  foliage.  The 
groves  were  watered  by  meandering  streams  which  * 
flowed  from  numerous  fountains,  and  a  wonderful  temper- 
ature of  climate,  resembling  most  of  all  the  delightful 
season  of  spring,  prevailed  through  the  whole  year,  with 
an  equal  degree  of  salubrity."  To  some  it  may  seem 
strange  that  any  should  seek  to  identify  the  garden  of 
Eden,  or  paradise,  with  Mount  Ararat,  since  all  our  ideas 
of  the  latter  are  associated  with  high  and  rocky  peaks 


ON  THE   GARDEN  OF  EDEN.  147 

and  uninliabited  places.  But  even  allowing  that  they 
were  only  very  neighboring  places,  the  one  overlooking 
the  other,  the  garden  of  Eden  may  have  been  in  a  most 
elevated  position,  and  yet  a  most  fertile  and  beantiful  one. 
It  is  probable  that  some  of  the  most  interesting  and  fertile 
spots  on  earth  may  be  found  in  the  midst  of  high  moun- 
tains, and  on  their  very  summits. 

On  the  summit  of  the  great  Alleghany  mountains,  in 
the  south-western  part  of  Virginia,  there  is  a  large  plateau, 
consisting  of  eight  or  ten  thousand  acres,  of  the  richest 
land  in  the  state,  scarcely  undulating.  From  it  several 
rivers  rise,  taking  various  directions  towards  the  Atlantic 
or  Mississippi.  Doubtless  such  may  be  found  in  the  midst 
of  various  other  mountains  of  the  earth.  Such  may 
paradise  have  been,  near  the  source  of  that  river  which, 
after  passing  through  it,  was  divided  into  four  other 
rivers.  Near  this  delightful  spot  may  the  penitent  and 
believing  first  parents  of  our  race,  with  the  pious  descend- 
ants of  Seth,  have  lived,  though  not  permitted  to  enter  it ; 
while  Cain  and  his  ungodly  posterity  went  far  away  to 
the  East,  only  to  return  with  their  fair  but  ungodly 
daughters  to  corrupt  the  sons  of  God,  and  by  their  inter- 
marriage to  give  birth  to  a  race  of  giants  in  size,  and  fill 
the  earth  with  violence.  It  is  not  wonderful  that  Adam, 
and  the  pious  among  his  descendants,  should  linger  to  the 
last  near  the  sacred  spot.  Tlie  pious  Montgomery,  in  his 
interesting  poem  "  The  "World  before  the  Flood,"  makes 
him  here  to  live,  and  here  to  die.  The  righteous  Enoch 
is  made  to  say — 

"  One  morn  I  tracked  him  on  his  lonely  way, 
Pale  as  the  gleam  of  slow  awakening  day ; 
With  feeble  step  he  climb'd  yon  craggy  height, 
Then  fixed  on  distant  Paradise  his  sight. 
He  gazed  awhile,  in  silent  thought  profound  ; 
Then,  falling  prostrate  on  the  dewy  ground, 


148  THE  BIBLE   AI^D  THE   CLASSICS. 

He  poured  his  spirit  in  a  flood  of  prayer, — 
Bewailed  his  ancient  crime  in  self-despair, 
And  claimed  the  pledge  of  reconciling  grace, 
The  promised  Seed,  the  Saviour  of  his  race." 

Eiiocli  is  made  to  saj — 

"  I  stood  to  greet  him :  when  he  raised  his  head 
Divine  expression  o'er  his  visage  spread. 
'  Once  more  I  climb'd  these  rocks  with  weary  pace, 
And  but  once  more  to  view  my  native  place, 
To  bid  yon  garden  of  delight  farewell, 
The  earthly  Paradise  from  which  I  fell.' " 

In  the   sight  of  paradise  he  is  made  to   expire.      His 
funeral  sermon  was  only  one  line — 

"  His  youth  was  penitence,  his  age  was  peace." 

Bnt  the  most  important  consideration  in  connection 
with  the  locality  supposed  to  be  the  abode  of  our  first 
parents  before  the  flood,  and  of  the  second  parents  of  the 
human  race  after  it,  is  yet  to  be  mentioned. 

If  we  may  reasonably  believe  that  God,  having  pro- 
nounced man  "  very  good,"  and  having  appointed  him  to 
have  dominion  over  all  other  things  here  below,  would 
select  for  him  a  delightful  abode,  and  fill  the  garden  of 
Eden  with  delights, — much  more  may  we  expect  that, 
with  a  view  not  only  to  his  own  future  happiness  during 
the  many  hundred  years  of  his  earthly  existence,  but  to 
the  welfare  of  his  posterity,  he  would  have  chosen  that 
region  of  the  earth  most  favorable  to  the  continuance 
of  the  most  perfect  type  of  humanity  as  to  bodily  and 
mental  beauty  and  vigor.  That  all  parts  of  the  earth  are 
equally  favorable  to  corporeal  beauty  and  health,  or  to  the 
more  important  qualities  of  the  mind  and  character,  none 
will  pretend.  All  history  would  oppose  the  thought  or 
assertion.     And  if  it  be  asked  in  what  latitude,  in  what 


ON   THE  GARDEN"  OF  EDEN.  149 

zone  of  tlie  eartli,  in  wliat  lieniispliere  lias  man  been 
ever  fomid  in  tlie  liigliest  perfection  as  to  body  and  mind, 
making  allowances  for  some  few  exceptions  easily  to  be 
acconnted  for, — who  wonld  hesitate  to  say,  in  that  very 
hemisphere,  in  that  very  zone,  in  that  A'ery  latitude  where 
man  was  made,  and  where  paradise  was  placed  ? 

We  might  have  supposed  that  the  opposite  temperate 
zone  in  the  Southern  hemisphere  would  be  equally  favor- 
able to  the  development  and  exercise  and  perfection  of  the 
powers  and  faculties  of  man ;  but  all  history  shows  that 
it  is  not  so.  In  the  temperate  zone  of  the  ISTorthern  hem- 
isphere, and  along  the  line  of  mountains  reaching  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific, — the  Pyrenees,  the  Alps,  the  Tau- 
rian,  the  Circassian,  and  the  Himalayan, — you  must  look 
for  man  and  woman  in  their  highest  perfection.  All  the 
great  kingdoms  of  the  world, — the  Assyrian,  Babylonian, 
Medo-Persian,  Grecian,  and  Roman,^ — have  been  in  that 
range,  and  within  the  bounds  of  that  zone  of  the  North- 
ern hemisphere.  Tliere  have  all  the  arts  and  sciences 
most  flourished,  and  there,  especially,  has  religion  exer- 
cised most  power. 

Whoever  would  see  a  lively  exhibition  of  this  fact  need 
only  furnish  himself  .with  a  plate  containing  the  pictures 
of  fifteen  or  twenty  types  of  the  human  race  in  diiferent 
parts  of  the  world.  He  will  shrink  back  in  disgust  from 
all  but  those  which  belong  to  the  region  which  has  been 
mentioned.  Only  let  us  suppose  that  the  tropical  region, 
or  the  Arctic  circle  had  been  the  birthplace  of  man  ;  that 
he  had  been  made  according  to  the  types  there  prevailing, 
or  had  been  subject  to  the  various  influences  which  have 
made  those  degenerate  from  the  fair  Circassian,  or  Arme- 
nian, or  Persian,  or  the  noble  Grecian  or  Roman  charac- 
ters, both  as  to  body  and  mind.  As  we  either  ascend  to 
the  north  or  descend  to  the  south  of  this  broad  belt,  man 
gradually  becomes  more  ferocious,  barbarous,  and  ignorant, 


150  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

or  more  feeble  and  indifferent  in  mind  and  body.  Let  all 
history,  past  and  present,  be  examined,  in  order  to  test  the 
truth  of  this  statement,  making  due  allowance  for  certain 
exceptions,  the  result  of  peculiar  causes,  which,  however, 
do  not  affect  the  main  position.  Whoever  desires  to  see 
this  subject  ably  discussed,  will  do  well  to  examine  the 
interesting  work  of  Professor  Guiot,  entitled  "  Earth  and 
Man,"  in  which  he  establishes  this  position  by  a  reference 
to  universal  history.  What  has  been  said  of  Europe  and 
Asia,  is  true  also  of  America.  The  inhabitants  of  the  tem- 
perate zone  are,  for  the  most  part,  not  only  derived  from 
those  nations  of  Europe  which  came  from  the  finest  types 
of  humanity,  but  they  still  continue  those  types  under  the 
influence  of  the  same  causes  which  operated  in  their 
ancestors  of  the  old  world. 

And  now,  should  any  ask.  Are  the  ways  of  God  equal 
towards  his  rational  creatures,  in  placing  some  of  them  in 
such  favorable,  and  others  in  comparatively  unfavorable 
circumstances,  for  continuing  the  perfection  of  the  type 
first  given  to  man?  we  should  reply,  that  though  God 
must  not  be  questioned  by  man  as  to  his  gifts  and  favors, 
yet  we  should  remember  that  in  one  respect,  and  that  the 
greatest  of  all,  we  are  on  an  equality.  God  made  of  one 
blood  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  His  blessed  Son  tasted 
death  for  all.  All  are  capable  of  everlasting  glory  in 
heaven.  The  religion  of  Christ  is  the  great  instrument  of 
elevation  to  the  whole  human  family.  Let  Christians  do 
the  noble  work  God  has  assigned  them,  and  send  the  gos- 
pel to  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  and  then  shall  the  king- 
doms of  this  world  become  the  kingdoms  of  Christ ;  and 
if  this  earth  is  to  be  renewed,  as  some  think,  to  be  the 
future  habitation  of  the  saints,  we  may  expect  that  it  will 
be  made  a  meet  habitation  for  them  throughout  its  whole 
extent ;  and  if  not  this,  another  and  more  perfect  one  will 
be  made  ready  for  their  use. 


CHAPTEK    IX. 

ON    THE    IMMORTALITY    OF    THE    SOUL    AJSfD    KESUERECTION    OF 
THE   BODY. 

Man,  hj  transgression,  forfeited  the  favor  of  God,  and 
incurred  the  sentence  of  death,  though  it  was  not  imme- 
diately executed.  Our  first  parents  were  put  on  a  new 
probation,  with  the  promise  of  a  divine  Restorer  who 
should  bruise  the  head  of  the  great  enemy.  It  becomes 
us  now  to  inquire  as  to  the  extent  and  duration  of  his  be- 
ing under  this  Deliverer.  That  he  was  not  to  regain  the 
earthly  paradise  which  he  had  lost ;  that  his  life  was  not 
to  be  perpetuated,  even  on  the  outside  of  the  garden  of 
Eden,  are  clear  from  the  whole  history  of  man.  Wone  of 
the  human  race  has  ever  escaped  the  penalty,  so  far  as 
we  know,  except  Enoch  and  Elijah,  whom  God  received 
into  heaven  without  requiring  them  to  taste  of  death 
and  go  through  the  painful  struggles  of  dissolution. 
What  evidences  have  we  then  of  a  future  state,  or  that 
the  body  ever  revives,  or  that  the  soul  does  not  enter  on 
some  condition  of  ignorance  and  forgetfulness  of  the  past, 
if  not  of  annihilation ;  or  that  it  is  not,  according  to  a 
favorite  idea  of  many  ancients,  reabsorbed  into  the  great 
Deity, — which  some  say  is  meant  by  "  returning  to  the 
God  who  gave  it  ?" 

Bishop  AVarburton,  in  his  work  on  "The  Divine  Legation 
of  Moses,"  asserts  that  the  fact  of  a  future  state  of  rewards 


152  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

and  punishments  belongs  so  necessarily  to  sncli  a  being 
as  man,  that  it  must  be  generally  received  without  any 
special  revelation,  except  in  the  first  instance,  to  the  pa- 
rents of  the  human  race ;  and  that  it  was  purposely  left 
out  of  the  Mosaic  system  and  writings,  in  order  that  the 
universal  sentiment  of  mankind  should  establish  it.  He 
shows,  in  his  learned  work,  how  all  legislators  and  phi- 
losophers, in  every  age  and  land,  had  made  it  a  part  of 
their  system,  and  that  the  founders  of  every  form  of  relig- 
ious worship  had  done  the  same.  He  is,  however,  generally 
regarded  as  a  bold,  daring,  and  somewhat  unsafe  theorist 
on  this  subject,  though  in  most  other  respects  a  sound  di- 
vine. Although  life  and  immortality  are  brought  to  light 
by  the  gospel,  by  reason  of  the  greater  clearness  with 
which  a  future  state  is  revealed  by  our  Lord  and  his  apos- 
tles, yet  it  is  evident  that  they  speak  of  it  as  believed  by 
the  saints  of  the  old  dispensation. 

To  suppose  the  Jews  ignorant  of  a  future  state  would 
be  to  place  them  in  the  scale  of  religious  knowledge 
lower  than  other  nations.  For  Bishop  Warburton  main- 
tains that  all  the  Gentile  nations  had  such  a  belief,  while 
he  labors  to  prove  that  all  the  passages  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment which  have  been  supposed  to  assert  this,  have  no 
reference  to  the  subject.  When  it  is  said  that  "life  and 
immortality  are  brought  to  light  by  the  gospel,"  may  we 
not  suppose  that  this  had  reference  to  the  ignorance  and 
doubts  of  the  heathen,  even  of  their  philosophers,  rather 
than  the  people  of  God  ?  When  do  we  find  any  of  the 
Old  Testament  saints  expressing  doubts  as  to  their  future 
existence,  as  Socrates  and  others  of  the  philosophers  did  ? 
We  must  suppose  that  the  Jews  had  a  more  certain  belief 
in  a  future  state  than  any  other  nation,  although  they 
may  have  seen  all  things  pertaining  to  it  "  as  through  a 
glass  darkly." 

Our  Lord  speaks  of  God  "  being  the  God  of  Abraham, 


IMMORTALITY  OF   THE   SOUL,   ETC.  153 

of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob,"  in  sncli  a  manner  that  none  can 
doubt  but  that  he  recognized  the  doctrine  of  a  future 
state  as  held  by  them  and  tlie  Jews  of  old.  St.  Paul,  in 
speaking  of  the  believing  fathers  in  olden  times,  expressly 
says  that  "  they  were  only  strangers  and  pilgrims  on 
earth;"  that  "they  desire  a  better  country,  that  is  an 
heavenly;"  that  "God  had  prepared  for  them  a  city;" 
and  that  "  they  expected  a  better  resurrection." 

To  suppose  that  the  ancient  Jews  did  not  look  for  a 
future  state,  would  be  to  question  St.  Paul's  inspiration. 
In  the  book  of  Job,  who,  though  not  one  of  the  He- 
brew race,  but  an  Arabian,  lived  and  wrote  somewhere 
about  the  time  of  Moses,  when  there  were  still  some 
pious  persons  in  the  Eastern  world  not  of  the  line  of 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  we  have  a  strong  declaration 
as  to  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  as  well  as  to  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul ;  "  I  know  (he  says)  that  my  Re- 
deemer liveth,  and  that  he  shall  stand  at  the  latter  day 
upon  the  earth.  And  though  after  my  skin  worms  de- 
stroy this  body,  yet  in  my  flesh  shall  I  see  God  :  whom  I 
shall  see  for  myself,  and  mine  eyes  shall  behold,  and  not 
another." — Job  xix,  25. 

That  such  was  the  belief  of  the  Jewish  rabbis,  none  ac- 
quainted with  their  writings  can  question.  There  was, 
about  the  time  of  our  Saviour's  appearalfce,  a  sect  of  un- 
believers,— the  Sadducees, — who  rejected  both  the  doctrine 
of  the  resurrection  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  but 
they  were  the  exceptions  to  the  general  rule,  just  as  infi- 
dels now  are  exceptions  to  the  well-known  fact  that  the 
great  body  of  persons  among  us  are  believers  in  Christ. 
The  dissolute  lives  of  the  Sadducees,  it  is  well  known,  cast 
great  discredit  on  their  system. 

When,  therefore,  we  find  it  written  by  Moses  that 
"  Enoch  walked  with  God  ;  and  he  was  not,  for  God  took 
him,"  and  that  in  the  New  Testament  he  is  spoken  of  as 


154:  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

having  been  translated  to  heaven  without  the  usual  pro- 
cess of  dissolution,  on  account  of  his  eminent  piety,  we 
must  regard  this  case  as  an  early  testimony  in  the  infancy 
of  the  world,  not  only  to  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  but 
to  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  as  was  that  of  Elijah  ages 
after,  and  as  will  be  the  case  at  the  end  of  the  world  with 
those  who  shall  be  found  dwelling  in  the  flesL,  but  who 
shall,  together  with  the  dead,  rise  from  their  graves,  and 
be  translated  to  heaven,  if  they  have  walked  with  God — 
such  changes  being  effected  in  their  bodies  as  shall  be 
necessary. 

And  surely  if  God  can  make  new  bodies  of  the  remains 
of  the  old  ones,  or  out  of  whatever  he  pleases,  he  can 
readily  modify  and  perfect  such  as  have  never  tasted 
death,  or  been  laid  in  the  grave.  Our  blessed  Redeemer, 
who  in  his  own  person  exemplified  the  resurrection  of  the 
body  and  the  translation  in  the  body,  by  rising  from  the 
grave  and  then  in  the  presence  of  his  disciples  ascending 
up  in  the  body,  has  promised  to  do  both  these  for  the 
quick  and  the  dead  on  the  last  day. 

Let  us  now  see  what  it  is  that  ancient  tradition,  coming 
through  other  channels  than  our  scrij^tures,  can  furnish  in 
corroboration  of  this  doctrine.  In  the  history  of  the  Atlan- 
tians, — a  nation  living  near  Mount  Atlas,  in  Africa, — Ura- 
nus is  said  to  have  had  many  sons,  only  three  of  whom 
are  mentioned ;  as  is  the  fact  in  the  Mosaic  history,  which 
only  mentions  three  of  the  sons  of  Adam, — Cain,  Abel 
and  Seth.  Atlas,  Chronus,  and  Hyperion  are  the  three  men- 
tioned in  the  Atlantian  legend.  One  of  these,  Hyperion, 
is  murdered  by  his  brothers.  Atlas  and  Chronus,  who  di- 
vided the  empire  between  them.  The  former  was  a  learned 
astronomer,  and  gave  the  name  to  Mount  Atlas.  He  had 
a  son  called  Hesperus,  who  pursued  his  father's  studies, 
and  was  also  eminent  for  his  piety.  Having  one  day 
ascended  the  mountain  to  make  observations,  he  was  sud- 


IMMORTALITY  OF  THE   SOUL,    ETC.  155 

denly  carried  away  by  a  wliirlwiiid,  and  never  was  heard 
of  afterwards.  The  people,  venerating  his  piety,  enrolled 
him  among  the  immortals,  and  worshipped  the  new  deity 
in  the  beautiful  star  of  the  evening. 

A  similar  legend  is  found  in  the  antediluvian  history  of 
the  Hindoos.  A  son  of  Adima  and  Siva  kills  his  brother  at 
a  sacrifice.  After  the  death  of  this  holy  personage,  the  earth 
is  peopled  by  the  descendants  of  the  surviving  brothers. 
One  of  these  had  a  son  named  Dhruva,  who  gave  himself 
up  to  the  contemplation  of  the  Supreme  Being,  and  to  the 
performance  of  religious  austerities.  His  extraordinary 
piety  gained  him  the  favor  of  the  Deity ;  and,  after  deliver- 
ing many  salutary  precepts  to  mankind,  he  is  translated  to 
heaven  without  tasting  death,  where  he  still  shines  con- 
spicuous in  the  polar  star. 

Among  the  idols  worshipped  by  the  Calmucks  of  Asia, 
there  is  one  they  call  Zacca,  the  same  with  Buddha. 
They  say  that  four  thousand  years  ago  he  was  only  a  sov- 
ereign prince,  but  on  account  of  his  unparalleled  sanc- 
tity God  took  him  to  heaven  alive. 

In  the  progress  of  these  mythologies,  however,  the 
righteous  Enoch  melts  into  the  character  of  righteous 
Noah,  and  the  three  sons  of  the  first  parents  into  the  three 
sons  of  ISToah. 

Other  traditions  to  the  same  effect  may  be  collected 
from  other  mythologies,  but  the  foregoing  brief  statement 
will  suffice  for  this  interesting  account  of  Enoch's  transla- 
tion. 

We  also  find  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  substan- 
tiated in  the  wild  poetical  mythology  of  the  Greeks,  after 
they  had  turned  all  the  old  traditions  of  other  nations  into 
the  licentious  fictions  of  their  own.  Wherefore  we  read  of 
Bacchus  assuring  Cadmus  that  by  the  help  of  Mars  he 
should  live  forever  in  "  The  Isles  of  the  Blessed."  Jupiter 
is  also  said  to  have  made  Aganympha  immortal.     After 


156  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

tlie  death  of  her  husband  Hercules,  Alkmena  is  translated 
by  Mercury  into  the  pagan  Elysium,  and  married  to  Ead- 
amanthus.  There  are  other  fables  of  the  same  kind  tend- 
ing to  show  that  there  was  an  impression  not  only  that 
men  might,  as  to  their  souls,  survive  the  death  of  the  body, 
but  live  forever  in  the  body.  But  if  there  were  no  other 
proof  of  such  general  belief  in  a  future  state,  that  most 
popular  belief  both  among  philosopers  and  priests,  and 
the  multitude  also,  of  the  transmigration  of  souls  after 
death  into  new  bodies,  would  establish  it. 

Bishop  Warburton,  who  wrote  before  the  middle  of  the 
last  century,  says  that  even  at  that  time  "  The  doctrine  of 
the  MetemjDsychosis,  or  transmigration  of  souls,  flourished 
with  greater  vigor  in  India  than  in  any  place  or  age  in 
the  world."  It  was  probably  the  most  universal  belief 
that  prevailed  in  the  ancient  world.  Of  course  it  sup- 
poses the  existence  of  the  soul  after  the  death  of  the 
body.  It  supposes,  also,  a  state  of  rewards  and  pun- 
ishments,— the  good  being  rewarded  by  being  trans- 
ferred into  the  bodies  of  good  and  honorable  men, 
who  should  enjoy  the  favor  of  God  in  this  world,  in  other 
bodies  and  conditions.  The  punishment  of  evil  men  was 
that  of  their  being  transferred  into  the  bodies  of  evil  and 
suffering  men,  and  even  of  the  lower  and  more  ignoble 
animals.  This  was  preferred,  for  the  most  part,  to  another 
popular  opinion,  that  the  soul  was  reabsorbed  into  the 
great  deity  or  soul  of  the  world,  from  whence  it  emanated. 
There  is  an  allusion  to  this  opinion  in  the  question  put  to 
our  Lord,  as  to  the  case  of  one  born  blind,  whose  eyes  he 
opened.  Who  did  sin,  this  man  or  his  parents,  (was  the 
question,)  that  he  was  born  blind  ?  That  is,  did  he  sin  in 
a  previous  body  or  state,  and  is  he  now  being  punished  by 
being  transferred  into  a  sightless  body ;  or  have  his  pa- 
rents been  guilty  of  some  crime,  and  has  the  judgment 
fallen  upon  their  child  ? 


IMMORTALITY   OF  THE   SOUL,   ETC.  157 

Bisliop  Warburtoii  speaks  of  a  philsoplier,  Apoloiiius 
by  name,  wlio  declares  that  as  to  the  opinion  that  good 
men  should  be  rewarded  after  death,  he  could  not  reach 
either  the  author  or  original  of  it.  Plutarch  affirms  the 
same  with  great  positiveness.  Cicero,  who  wrote  so  fully 
and  ably  in  his  day  against  those  who  doubted  or  denied 
the  doctrine,  says,  "We  conclude,  from  the  consent  of  all 
mankind,  that  the  soul  is  immortal."  Seneca  says,  "  The 
consent  of  all  mankind,  in  their  hopes  and  fears  of  a  future 
state,  is  of  no  small  moment  to  us."  Ancient  Greek  his- 
torians tell  us  that  the  Egyptians,  whose  religion  was  of 
the  earliest  date,  taught  that  the  soul  was  immortal.  The 
fact  that  they  and  other  nations  worshipped  the  gods  in 
the  human  form,  in  the  statues  erected  to  them,  proves 
that,  though  now  supposed  to  be  living  and  immortal, 
they  were  once  mortal  men.  Plato  argues  in  favor  of  the 
immortality  of  the  soul  from  ancient  tradition  and  the 
religion  of  his  country,  although  his  own  view  was  rather 
a  philosophical  one,  as  will  hereafter  be  seen.  Bishop 
"Warburton  says  that  the  great  lawgivers  and  founders  of 
empires,  who  were  afterwards  deified  themselves,  and  who 
taught  the  doctrine  of  future  rewards  and  punishments,  pro- 
fessed to  have  received  their  revelations  from  some  god 
who  had  himself  been  a  mortal,  but  was  now  immortal. 
Strabo  says  that  "The  Indian  Brahmins  invented  fables 
about  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  after  the  manner  of  Plato." 
Plato,  in  his  "  Timmeus,"  speaks  of  those  endless  punish- 
ments which  the  terrors  of  religion  pronounce  against  the 
wicked  from  above  and  below,  as  calculated  to  cleanse  the 
mind  from  vice.  Zeleucus,  an  ancient  writer  and  lawgiver, 
says,  "Men  should  set  before  themselves  the  dreadful  hour 
of  death,  when  the  memory  of  evil  actions  past  will  seize 
the  sinner  w^ith  remorse."  Cicero  also  speaks  of  those 
whose  merits  have  raised  them  to  heaven,  as  Hercules, 
Bacchus,  &c,,  and  advocates  the  erection  of  cha23els  in 


168  ■       THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS, 

honor  of  tliose  qualities  wliicli  liave  raised  men  to  this 
distinction. 


THE   TESTIMONY   OF  THE   MYSTERIES. 

The  account  Avhich  we  have  of  the  ancient  mysteries, 
represents  them,  in  their  first  and  purest  state,  as  designed 
to  inculcate  a  holy  and  virtuous  life  in  order  to  a  happy 
immortality  :  "While  at  death  and  leaving  the  body,  the 
souls  of  the  profane  stick  fast  in  the  mire,  those  of  the 
initiated,  who  were  worthy,  winged  their  flight  to  the 
habitation  of  the  gods."  "  It  was  the  end  and  drift  of  in- 
itiation," says  Plato,  "  to  restore  the  soul  to  that  state  from 
whence  it  fell  as  from  its  native  state  of  perfection."  We 
shall  have  more  to  say  on  this  subject  in  our  chapter  on 
the  ancient  mysteries. 

That  there  were  those  in  ancient  as  well  as  in  modern 
times  who  denied  future  and  eternal  punishment,  is  most 
true.  They  argued  against  it  from  their  idea  of  the  God- 
head, affirming  that  the  Deity  was  incaj^able  of  anger,  and 
could  not  thus  punish.  Much  was  written  on  this  subject 
by  the  ancient  fathers  of  the  church,  in  their  contests  with 
some  of  the  philosophers.  Julius  Csesar,  before  the  time 
of  Christ,  held  that  opinion,  and  publicly  maintained  it 
before  the  Eoman  senate  when  defending  Catiline,  who 
was  on  trial  for  his  life.  He,  being  an  Epicurean  and  an 
atheist,  declared  that  death  was  no  evil,  as  they  who 
inflicted  it  imagined  and  intended  it  to  be,  Cato  and 
Cicero,  who  advocated  the  death  of  Catiline,  did  not  enter 
on  any  philosophical  argument  with  Csesar,  but  simply 
affirmed  that  the  doctrine  of  rewards  and  j)unishments  had 
come  down  to  them  from  their  ancestors ;  and  that  if  it 
were  not  so,  death  would  not  be  feared,  and  of  course  evil 
men  would  not  be  restrained  from  vice  by  the  infliction 
of  death."  Caesar,  however,  in  his  Commentaries,  furnishes 


IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL,   ETC.  159 

US  with  a  fact  in  confirmation  of  the  doctrine.  He  declares 
tliat  tlie  Druids  of  Gaul  lield  the  imperishable  nature  of 
the  soul. 


TESTIMONY    OF    HOMER. 

Long  before  the  times  of  Plato,  Cicero,  and  Caesar,  the 
poets  had  held  no  dubious  language  on  the  subject.  Ho- 
mer, first  of  poets,  and  whose  Iliad  is  the  oldest  of  pagan 
writings  extant,  (except  in  fragments,)  makes  his  hero, 
Achilles,  saj, 

"'Tis  true,  'tis  certain,  man  though  dead  retains 
Part  of  himself, — the  immortal  mind  remains  ; 
The  form  subsists  without  the  body's  aid ; 
Aerial  semblance,  and  an  empty  shade." 


TESTIMONY    OF    MODERN    POETS. 

The  words  which  Addison  has  put  into  the  mouth  of 
Cato,  when  about  to  make  trial  of  it,  are  worthy  of  inser- 
tion here,  and  will  be  read  with  interest  by  the  young. 
On  the  night  before  he  put  an  end  to  himself,  he  is  made 
to  read  the  argument  of  Plato,  and  thus  does  he  speak : 

"  It  must  be  so.     Plato,  thou  reasonest  well ; 
Else,  whence  this  fond  desire. 
This  longing  after  immortality  ? 
This  [his  sword]  in  a  moment  brings  me  to  an  end ; 
But  this  [Plato's  book]  informs  me  I  shall  never  die. 
The  soul,  secure  of  her  existence,  smiles 
At  the  drawn  dagger  and  defies  its  point. 
The  stars  may  fade  away,  the  sun  himself 
Grow  dim  with  age,  and  nature  sink  in  years, 
But  thou  shalt  flourish  in  immortal  youth. 
Unhurt  amid  the  roar  of  elements. 
The  wreck  of  matter,  and  the  crash  of  worlds." 


160  THE   BIBLE  AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

Shakspeare  may  also  furnish  us  with  some  useful  thoughts 
on  the  subject  : 

"  For  who  would  bear  the  whips  and  scorns  of  time, 
The  oppressor's  wrong,  the  proud  man's  contumely ; 
The  pangs  of  despised  love,  the  law's  delay, 
The  insolence  of  oflSce ;  the  spurns 
That  patient  merit  of  the  unworthy  takes. 
When  he  himself  might  his  quietus  make 
With  a  bare  bodkin, — 

But  that  the  dread  of  something  after  death — 
The  undiscovered  country,  from  whose  bourne 
No  traveller  returns — puzzles  the  will, 
And  makes  us  rather  bear  the  Uls  we  have, 
Than  tly  to  others  that  we  know  not  of." 

Dr.  Young,  in  his  "  Night  Thoughts,"  has  also  clothed 
in  strong  language  some  of  these  arguments,  which  Plato, 
Cicero,  and  others,  ancient  and  modern,  have  used  in  fa- 
vor of  the  immortality  of  the  soul : 

"  The  man,  immortal,  rationally  bi'ave. 
Dares  rush  on  death,  because  he  cannot  die. 
'Tis  immortality  and  that  alone. 
Amid  life's  pains,  abasements,  emptiness, 
The  soul  can  raise,  can  elevate  and  fill. 
Religion,  Providence,  an  after  state : 
Here  is  firm  footing,  here  is  solid  rock ; 
This  can  support  us — all  is  sea  beside. 
'Tis  immortality  alone  can  solve 
That  darkest  of  enigmas,  human  hope  ; 
Of  all  the  darkest,  if  at  death  we  die." 

"  Man  but  dives,  in  death, — 
Dives  from  the  sun,  in  fairest  day  to  rise ; 
The  grave,  his  subterranean  road  to  bliss. 
Eternity  struck  off  from  human  hope, 
Man  is  a  monster,  the  reproach  of  heaven : 
If  human  souls,  why  not  angelic,  too, 
Extinguished,  and  a  solitary  God 
O'er  ghastly  ruins  frowning  from  his  throne." 


IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL,   ETC.  161 

"  Man,  ill  at  ease, 
Poor  in  abundance,  famished  at  a  feast, 
Sighs  on  for  something  more — 
Oh !  for  a  bliss  unbounded." 

"  Man  must  soar ; 
An  obstinate  activity  within  will  toss  him  up. 
Souls  immortal  must  always  heave 
At  something  great." 

Some  remarks  on  tlie  state  of  souls  between  death  and 
the  resurrection,  will  conclude  this  chapter. 

As  the  great  consummation  of  happiness  to  men  in  a 
future  state  does  not  take  place  until  after  its  reunion 
with  the  body  and  glorification  in  the  presence  of  the 
exalted  Saviour,  it  has  ever  been  an  interesting  inquiry 
among  Christians  as  to  what  its  condition  and  locality 
will  be.  Only  so  far  as  God  may  have  thought  proper  to 
reveal  it,  may  we  feel  justified  in  pursuing  the  inquiry. 

We  read  of  paradise,  and  Abraham's  bosom,  as  places 
of  rest  and  peace,  in  which  the  souls  of  the  faithful 
are  admitted  immediately  after  the  separation  from 
the  body.  As  to  their  locality,  and  whether  there  be 
anything  which  can  properly  be  called  form  around  de- 
parted spirits,  nothing  is  said  so  as  to  make  it  an  article 
of  our  creed.  It  was  an  old  dispute  among  the  philoso- 
phers, the  Jewish  doctors,  and  the  early  fathers,  whether 
anything  but  God  himself  could  be  regarded  as  pure 
spirit,  as  incorporeal  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word ; 
and  whether  the  souls  of  men  could  exist,  and  act,  and  en- 
joy themselves  without  some  kind  of  body,  however  light 
and  ethereal.  We  do  not  mean  to  enter  upon  any  such 
investigation,  but  merely  to  speak  of  the  opinions  held  on 
the  subject.  As  to  the  locality  of  the  place  of  departed 
spirits,  until  the  final  consummation,  the  most  wise  have 
foreborne  to  speculate.  It  is  sufficient  that  the  scriptures 
have  declared  that  "we  shall  be  with  Christ;"  that  we 
11 


162  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

shall  enjoy  his  presence.  Whoever  M^oiild  see  this  sub- 
ject fully  discussed,  may  refer  to  the  learned  Dr.  Cud- 
worth's  "  Intellectual  Philosophy,"  and  to  authorities  in 
Bishop  Hobart's  "  Treatise  on  the  State  of  the  Departed." 

The  ancient  j)hilosophers  and  the  poets  seem  generally 
to  have  favored  the  idea  of  some  light  ethereal  forms  for 
good  and  evil  angels,  and  for  the  inhabitants  of  their 
Elysium  and  Tartarus,  thinking  that  such  were  necessary 
to  their  suft'ering  and  enjoyment.  Plato  speaks  of  some 
luciform  bodies  which  were  worn  by  apparitions  or  de- 
parted shades  when  revisiting  the  earth,  as  they  do,  ac- 
cording to  the  opinions  of  some. 

These  genii  or  demons,  and  their  lesser  gods  who  were 
once  mortals,  were  believed  to  have  bodies  or  forms  of  a 
more  spiritual  or  ethereal  nature  than  the  gross  bodies  of 
men.  Thus,  Homer,  speaking  of  the  blood  of  Venus 
shed  at  the  siege  of  Troy,  says, 

"  Unlike  our  gross,  diseased,  terrestrial  blood." 

He  makes  Achilles  thus  speak  of  the  apparition  of  Patro- 
clus : 

"  This  night  my  friend,  in  battle  lost, 
Stood  at  my  side — a  pensive,  plaintive  ghost. 
E'en  now  familiar  as  in  life  he  came, 
Alas  !  how  different, — yet  how  like  the  same! " 

Thus,  also,  Virgil  takes  his  hero  ^neas  down  into  Tar- 
tarus and  Elysium,  the  two  grand  divisions  of  Hades  or 
the  place  of  departed  spirits.  vEneas  sees  all  the  various 
orders  of  ghosts,  and  hears  their  songs  or  groans ;  wit- 
nesses their  happiness  or  misery ;  converses  with  his  fa- 
ther Anchises, — but  when  he  would  embrace  him,  the 
ethereal  form  eludes  his  grasp  : 

"  Then  thrice  aronnd  his  neck  his  arms  he  threw, 
And  thrice  the  flitting  shadow  slipped  away." 


IMMORTALITY  OF  THE   SOUL,   ETC.  163 

Now  shadows,  we  know,  are  not  absolutely  and  entirely 
spiritual  things ;  there  is  some  kind  of  substance  in  them. 

Tliis  general  disposition,  then,  to  clothe  all  created  spirits 
with  some  kind  of  form,  however  subtle,  is  one  step  to- 
wards the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection, 

Yirgil  makes  some  of  the  ghosts  below,  in  their  aerial 
forms,  expectants  of  more  substantial  bodies  upon  earth 
again.  It  may  not  be  heresy  to  think,  with  some  of  the 
fathers,  that  even  in  paradise,  or  Abraham's  bosom,  the 
departed  spirits  may  be  clothed  upon  with  some  spiritual 
form,  which  may  enable  them  to  enjoy  each  others'  so- 
ciety the  better,  and  exercise  the  more  readily  love  to  the 
exalted  Redeemer;  but  this  is  a  subject  not  written  upon 
in  scripture,  and  we  must  not  be  wise  upon  that  wliich 
is  written. 

APPENDIX. 

Tlie  intermediate  state  and  the  resurrection  are  sub- 
jects of  such  deep  interest  to  man  as  to  justify  some 
further  remarks. 

We  have  said  it  was  the  common  opinion  that  God 
alone,  of  all  beings,  was  "  simple,  uncombined  sj)irit," — 
"  without  body,  parts,  or  passions."  The  scripture  repre- 
sents him  as  "  dwelling  in  the  light  which  no  man  can 
approach  unto."  Both  of  the  St.  Johns  declare  that  "  no 
man  can  see  God  at  any  time."  For  man,  composed  of 
flesh  and  blood,  to  see  a  simple  spirit,  unconnected  with 
matter,  is  an  impossibility.  "  No  man,"  said  our  Lord, 
"  has  seen  the  Father,  save  he  which  is  from  God :  he 
hath  seen  the  Father."  "  The  only  begotten  Son,  who  is 
in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  he  hath  declared  him,"  saith 
St.  John ;  that  is,  hath  revealed  him  to  us,  as  far  as  he 
is  intelligible.  God  is  revealed  to  us  in  the  person  of 
Christ.  Christ,  though  "  the  very  God,"  became  "  very 
man "  also,  by  taking  man's  nature  upon  him,  so  that  two 


164  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

"wliole  and  perfect  natures  were  joined  together  in  one 
person,  and  thus  constituted  "Emmanuel,  God  with 
us."  Some  consider  that  when  the  Holy  Ghost  came 
down  on  the  Saviour  in  the  form  of  a  dove,  and  on  the 
apostles  in  fiery  tongues,  there  was  a  kind  of  union 
of  the  Godhead  with  matter  ;  but  in  Christ's  incarnation 
"  the  Godhead  and  manhood  were  joined  together  in  one 
person,  never  to  be  divided."  Before  this  inseparable 
union  of  the  divine  and  human  natures  in  the  person  of 
Christ,  as  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  our  Lord,  on  various 
occasions,  appeared  in  the  form  of  man,  as  to  Abraham 
with  the  two  angels  ;  to  Nebuchadnezzar  in  the  fiery  fur- 
nace ;  to  Joshua,  as  captain  of  the  host  of  Jehovah ; — and 
some  suppose  that  in  this  form  he  may,  long  before,  have 
visited  other  worlds  on  errands  of  love  and  mercy — though 
this  must  be  all  speculation.  Certain  however  it  is,  that 
in  his  incarnate  state  he  has  to  do  with  other  worlds  since 
the  redemption  of  man.  St.  Peter  says,  "  Jesus  Christ 
is  gone  into  heaven ;  angels  and  authorities  and  powers 
being  made  subject  to  him."  St.  Paul  tells  us  that  God 
hath  put  all  things  under  his  feet,  not  only  in  this  world, 
but  in  that  which  is  to  come.  All  the  angels  are  di- 
rected to  worship  him.  By  him  the  Father  reconciles 
all  things  to  himself,  whether  in  heaven  or  earth.  All 
things,  whether  on  earth  or  in  heaven,  are  to  be  "  gath- 
ered together  in  him."  As  human  nature  seems  to  be 
the  highest  type  in  creation,  and,  when  repaired  and 
clothed  with  spiritual  bodies,  the  saints  shall  be  as  the 
angels,  or  equal  to  the  angels,  it  is  reasonably  inferred 
that  the  angels  have  bodies  like  unto  those  of  men,  though 
purified  and  exalted  so  as  to  commune  with  the  glorified 
Saviour.  On  general  principles,  too,  it  is  believed  that 
all  orders  of  beings,  except  God  himself,  have  more  or 
less  of  the  material  about  them.  Who  can  object  to  this, 
seeing  that  our  Lord  himself  condescends  to  wear  a  glo- 


IMMORTALITY   OF  THE   SOUL,   ETC.  165 

rions  body,  and  reign  over  tliem  in  the  same !  The  fallen 
angels  may  once  have  had  bodies  like  those  of  men,  only 
more  spiritual,  more  like  those  of  the  redeemed  in  heaven, 
and  may  have  lost  them  through  sin  and  death.  They  may, 
however,  retain  light  aerial  forms,  as  some  ancient  traditions 
report,  by  which  they  hover  over  the  earth  ready  to  do 
evil,  so  far  as  permitted.  They  also  may  be  in  some  in- 
termediate state,  awaiting  their  final  doom  with  the  wick- 
ed of  earth,  when  they  shall  both  be  cast  into  some  place 
of  endless  suffering.  Where  the  locality  is  in  which  the 
souls  of  those  who  have  lived  on  earth  shall  remain  until 
the  resurrection,  I  undertake  not  even  to  form  an  opinion. 
That  the  souls  of  the  faithful  will  be  with  Christ  and  in  a 
state  of  happiness,  though  looking  forward  to  a  higher  one 
when  clothed  upon  with  new  and  spiritual  bodies,  we 
must  believe.  "We  must  also  believe  that  the  wicked  are 
in  misery,  and  awaiting  greater  misery.  We  read  of 
Tophet,  or  hell,  of  paradise,  or  Abraham's  bosom,  as  the 
abodes  of  the  wicked  and  the  righteous.  The  gehenna,  or 
hell  of  the  Jews  seems  to  answer  to  the  Tartarus  of  the  pa- 
gans, where  was  great  suffering  ;  while  the  paradise  of  the 
Jews  corresponded  with  the  Elysium  of  the  heathen, 
where  delightful  scenes  abounded. 

Growing  out  of  the  belief  that  none  but  God  himself 
is  a  pure  disembodied  and  invisible  spirit ;  that  the 
spirits  of  men,  in  their  disembodied  state,  have  some  ethe- 
real form, — there  has  been  in  all  ages  the  belief  that  such 
have  been  able  sometimes  to  manifest  themselves  to  the 
eyes  of  men.  They  were  called  manes,  shades,  or  ghosts, 
among  the  ancients,  and  are  called  apparitions,  or  spirits, 
among  ourselves.  K  disembodied  spirits  have  some  material 
forms  or  vehicles,  though  light,  subtle,  and  ethereal  com- 
pared with  the  bodies  of  men  now,  and  even  after  the  res- 
urrection, none  can  say  that  it  is  impossible  but  that  God 
may  permit  them  to  visit  earth,  and  make  themselves,  in 


166  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

some  measure,  visible  to  the  liiiman  eye.  That  so  gen- 
eral an  impression  should  have  prevailed  renders  it  a 
most  probable  truth  that  some  have  been  real ;  but  as 
dreams,  though  sometimes  true,  generally  prove  false,  so 
with  apparitions  ;  for  the  most  part  they  are  only  vivid 
dreams  of  the  night,  or  of  the  day,  by  an  excited  imagi- 
nation, which  represents  as  real  what  are  but  phantoms. 
That  God  has  not  intended  this  to  be  a  channel  of  commu- 
nication between  the  two  worlds  for  much  effect  is  evident 
from  the  fact  that  such  few  instances  are  on  sacred  record 
where  it  was  used  by  himself.  In  the  book  of  Job,  Eliphaz 
says  an  image  passed  before  his  eyes,  though  he  could 
not  see  the  precise  form  thereof,  and  a  voice  spake  to  him, 
"  Shall  mortal  man  be  more  just  than  God?"  Samuel 
may  have  appeared  to  Saul  at  Endor.  Moses  and  Elias, 
though  long  before  dead,  appeared  on  the  mount  of 
transfiguration,  together  with  our  Lord,  and  were  seen  of 
three  disciples,  Peter,  James,  and  John.  Angels  appear- 
ed at  the  sepulchre  of  our  Lord,  in  the  human  form. 
God  may  have  permitted  such  apjDaritions  among  men,  at 
other  times  and  in  other  countries,  to  strengthen  the  belief 
of  the  continued  existence  of  friends  after  death.  But 
the  answer  of  Abraham  to  the  rich  man  who  wished  one 
Bent  from  the  dead  to  warn  his  brethren  who  were  upon 
the  earth,  shows  of  how  little  avail  such  visits  would  be 
in  comparison  with  the  warning  which  we  all  have : 
"  Tliey  have  Moses  and  the  prophets ;  if  they  hear  not  them, 
neither  would  they  believe  though  one  rose  from  the  dead." 

THE   EESUEKECTION   OF   THE   BODY. 

But  a  much  more  important  subject  than  the  uncertain 
condition  of  disembodied  spirits  deserves  some  additional 
remarks,  viz.,  the  resurrection  of  the  body.  Tlie  proj)het 
Daniel  says,  "  They  that  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the  earth 
shall  awake — some  to  everlasting  life,  and  some  to  shame 


IMMORTALITY  OF  THE   SOUL,   ETC.  167 

and  everlasting  contempt."  "When  our  Lord  said  to  sor- 
rowing Martha,  "Tliy  brother  siiall  rise  again,"  she 
answered,  most  emphatically,  "  I  know  that  he  shall  rise 
again  in  the  resurrection  at  the  last  day."  Infidels  of  that 
day,  as  well  as  since,  have  asked,  "  JBut  how  are  the  dead 
raised  up,  and  with  what  body  do  they  come  ? "  The 
apostle's  reply  was,  "  Thou  fool,"  etc.  To  some  modern 
infidels,  raising  this  same  question,  one  well  replied,  "  It 
was  time  enough  for  them  to  ask  that  question  when  God 
should  commit  to  them  the  task  of  raising  the  dead." 
Can  any  doubt  the  power  of  God  to  raise  the  dead,  who 
believes  that  he  made  Adam  out  of  the  dust  of  the  earth  ? 
But  it  is  said,  How  can  all  the  particles  of  man's  body  be 
collected  together  into  one  place  and  be  united  into  one 
body,  after  having  been  scattered  through  the  earth,  and 
so  often  changed  its  form  by  entering  into  other  bodies, 
and  seeing  that  the  same  person  so  often  parted  with  much 
of  the  material  of  his  own  body  and  took  on  him  other 
material,  and  thus  was  not  the  same  identical  person  as  to 
body  at  different  periods  of  his  life  ?  To  this  we  might 
answer,  "What  is  this  world  but  one  great  alembic  or 
chemist's  vessel,  in  which  all  these  materials  are  found 
in  chaotic  confusion;  and  w^hat  is  God  but  the  mighty 
Chemist,  who  can,  by  the  infusion  of  his  power,  bring 
together  all  the  particles  composing  each  body,  or  as 
much  as  is  needful  for  its  renewal  ?  "Who  shall  deny  this 
power  to  God?  But  it  is  not  necessary  that  the  new 
bodies  should  be  composed  of  the  very  same  particles 
which  at  one  time  made  up  the  earthly  man,  any  more 
than  that  the  grain  of  wheat  on  the  stalk  should  be  of  the 
same  particles  with  the  grain  which  is  sown  in  the  earth 
in  order  to  constitute  a  connexion  between  them,  or  that 
the  man  of  forty  should  be  of  the  very  same  particles 
with  the  youth  of  twenty,  in  order  to  constitute  an  iden- 
tity of  nature.    Every  man  feels  that  he  is  the  same  iden- 


168  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS, 

tical,  responsible  person  eacli  successive  year  that  he  was 
on  the  preceding,  notwithstanding  all  the  changes  that 
have  passed  upon  his  body  and  all  the  vai-ied  operations  of 
his  mind.  JSTo  man  need  expect  to  escape  the  judgment 
of  God  on  the  great  day,  by  reason  of  any  such  change 
of  material  which  may  take  place  in  his  new  body.  Some 
have  sought  to  escape  the  necessity  of  using  any  material, 
either  new  or  old,  for  the  reconstruction  of  man,  by  an 
ingenious  theory  derived  from  the  comparison  of  St.  Paul 
in  his  noble  chapter  on  the  resurrection.  The  grain  of 
wheat,  they  say,  has  a  germ  in  itself  from  which  the  plant 
grows  and  at  length  matures  into  a  new  grain  ;  so  the 
immortal  part  of  man,  consisting  of  soul  and  spirit,  has  a 
germ  in  it  which  is  made  by  God  to  grow  into  a  new  and 
spiritual  body.  They  say  that  the  apostle  Paul,  in  his 
Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians,  speaks  of  the  spirit  and  soul, 
as  well  as  body ;  and,  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  of 
the  dividing  asunder  of  soul  and  spirit.  They  consider 
the  word  Zoe  to  mean  the  immortal  soul  of  man,  and 
Psyche  as  meaning  the  spirit  or  life,  and  which  is  that 
light  material,  covering,  or  vehicle,  which  still  adheres 
to  the  soul  in  its  separate  state.  This,  they  say,  is 
the  germ  which  enlarges  and  matures  into  the  new  body. 
But,  whatever  be  the  merit  of  this  theory  as  regards 
psychology  or  theology,  do  we  stand  in  need  of  any  such 
in  order  to  the  practical  understanding  of  St.  Paul's  doc- 
trine of  the  resurrection  ?  God  promises  to  make  us  new, 
spiritual,  glorious,  incorruptible  bodies,  instead  of  our 
present  corruptible  ones — to  clothe  our  souls  with  the 
same — to  make  them  like  unto  the  glorious  body  of  our 
Lord.  Should  not  this  satisfy  us?  When  we  see  all  na- 
ture dying  and  reviving  again,  can  we  not  trust  God  to 
do  the  same  with  these  dying  bodies,  believing  that  he 
who  raised  up  Jesus  from  the  dead  will  raise  up  us  also, 
and  prepare  us  to  be  ever  with  the  Lord  ? 


CHAPTER    X. 

ON    THE    DEATH    OF    ABEL,    AND    THE    INSTITUTION    OF    SACRIFICES. 

In  tlie  brief  and  rapid  liistory  of  man,  we  are  soon 
brought  to  the  execution  of  the  fearful  sentence  of  death, 
— the  penalty  of  disobedience.  God  had  said  to  our  first 
parents,  "  In  the  day  that  thou  eatest  thereof  thoii  slialt 
surely  die."  But  it  was  an  extended  day,  through  the  long- 
suffering  patience  of  God.  It  is  supposed  that  the  infliction 
was  delayed  until  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-eighth 
year  of  the  life  of  Cain.  This  is  inferred  from  the  fact 
that  the  birth  of  Seth,  who  was  given  in  the  place  of  the 
murdered  Abel,  occurred  the  year  after  that  tragic  event, 
that  is,  the  one  hundred  and  thirtieth  year  of  Adam's  life 
— Genesis  iv.  25  ;  v.  3. 

But  if  the  delay  was  merciful,  the  occasion  and  circum- 
stances of  its  infliction  were  most  awful.  The  first-born 
of  the  children  of  Adam  imbued  his  hands  in  the  blood 
of  the  second.  That  fond  mother,  who  in  joyous  hope  had 
said  at  his  birth,  "  I  have  gotten  a  man  from  the  Lord," 
or,  as  the  learned  Lightfoot  and  others  translate  it,  "  I 
have  gotten  a  man,  even  the  Lord,  or  Jehovah  himself," 
the  promised  Deliverer, — ^is  doomed  to  see  that  son  a  mur- 
derer, following  the  example  of  the  wicked  one,  who,  out 
of  envy,  slew  the  hopes  of  our  first  parents  by  their  se- 
duction in  paradise,  and  was  thus  "  a  murderer  from  the 
beginning." 

Truly  may  it  be  said  of  Cain,  "  he  was  of  his  father 
the  devil."  How  deeply  affected  must  our  first  parents 
have  been  at  seeing  the  bitter  fruits  of  their  own  sin  thus 


170  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

exhibiting  themselves  in  their  first-born  child  !  How 
keen  their  misery  in  beholding  in  him  a  fratricide,  instead 
of  a  Saviour — themselves  condemned  as  though  them- 
selves the  guilty  ones ! 

Montgomery,  in  his  "  "World  before  the  Flood,"  has  set 
forth  this  feature  in  penitent  Adam,  in  a  very  touching 
manner,  in  the  following  lines : 

"  Children  were  his  delight :  they  ran  to  meet 
His  soothing  hand,  and  clasp  his  honored  feet, 
"While,  midst  their  fearless  sport  supremely  blest, 
He  grew,  in  heart,  a  child  among  the  rest. 
Yet,  as  a  parent,  naught  beneath  the  sky 
Touched  him  so  quickly  as  an  infant's  eye. 
Joy  from  its  smile  of  happiness  he  sought ; 
Its  flash  of  rage  sent  horror  through  his  thought ; 
His  smitten  conscience  felt  as  fierce  a  pain 
As  if  he  fell  from  innocence  again." 

How  aggravated  must  have  been  their  grief  at  thought 
of  the  very  institution,  which  was  appointed  for  the  en- 
couragement of  their  hopes  and  the  exercise  of  their  faith, 
being  the  occasion  of  this  great  sin  !  The  sacred  narra- 
tive informs  us  that  it  was  committed  immediately  after 
a  sacrifice,  and  in  consequence  of  the  rejection  of  Cain's 
offering  and  the  acceptance  of  Abel's.  We  will  not, 
however,  at  this  time,  consider  this  part  of  the  subject, 
as  it  will  properly  belong  to  the  question  of  sacrifice  ;  but 
proceed  to  remark  on  the  punishment  of  Cain,  who  was 
driven  out  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  (probably  from 
some  place  contiguous  to  Eden,  where  the  Lord  manifest- 
ed himself  to  the  righteous,)  and  became  a  fugitive  and  a 
vagabond  on  the  earth.  Li  bitterness  did  he  exclaim, 
"  My  punishment  is  greater  than  I  can  bear ;  every  one 
that  findeth  me  shall  slay  me."  But  this  the  Lord  for- 
bade, setting  a  mark  upon  him  in  order  to  prevent  it. 
The  whole  world  became  his  prison  and  penitentiary. 


ON  THE  DEATH  OF  ABEL.  171 

None  were  allowed  to  kill  him,  altliougli,  after  the  flood, 
God  gave  an  universal  law,  "Whoso  slieddeth  man's 
blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood  be  shed."* 

Surprise  has  been  expressed  that  Cain  should  speak  as 
if  the  earth  was  thus  early  filled  with  people,  so  that,  go 
where  he  would,  his  life  would  be  sought  after.  To  this 
it  is  answered,  that  if,  in  the  few  hundred  years  after 
Jacob  with  his  family  of  seventy  persons  settled  in  Egypt, 
they  so  increased  that  in  the  time  of  Moses  there  were 
six  hundred  thousand  fighting  men,  it  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered at  that  when  Cain  was  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
eight  years  old  there  should  be  in  that  part  of  the  world 
which  was  first  settled,  sufiicient  numbers  to  justify  the 
apprehensive  language  of  the  first  fugitive  from  justice. 
But  God  determined  that  he  should  not  be  punished  with 
immediate  death,  but  rather  be  made  the  wretched  victim 
of  remorse,  and  see  a  long  line  of  wicked  descendants, 
many  of  whom  would  upbraid  him  with  his  crime. 

Montgomery  has  also  treated  this  with  deep  pathos : 

"Eastward  on  Eden's  early  peopled  plain, 
Where  Abel  perished  by  the  hand  of  Cain, 
The  murderer  from  his  Judge's  presence  fled  : 
Thence  to  the  rising  sun  his  offspring  spread. 
But  he,  the  fugitive  of  care  and  guilt, 
Forsook  the  haunts  he  chose,  the  homes  he  built ; 
AVliile  filial  nations  hailed  him  sire  and  chief, 
Empire  nor  honor  brought  his  soul  relief: 
He  found,  where'er  he  roamed,  uncheered,  unblest, 
No  pause  from  suffering,  and  from  toil  no  rest." 

Such  have  been  the  wretched  lives  of  many  of  every  age, 
whom  justice  has  permitted  to  escape,  until,  unable  any 
longer  to  bear  the  intolerable  burthen,  they  have  added 

*  Some  have  rendered  the  passage,  "  My  punishment  is  greater  than  I  can 
bear.    Is  my  sin  too  great  to  be  forgiven  ?" 


172  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

suicide  to  murder,  thus  doubly  violating  that  law  which 
says,  "  Thou  shall  do  no  murder." 

Let  us  now  speak  more  particularly  of  the  time  and 
occasion  of  this  wicked  deed.  Both  were  sacred — the 
day  and  the  act,  and  perhaps  the  place. 

In  process  of  time,  or  in  the  end  of  the  days, — that  is,  as 
generally  understood  by  the  learned,  on  the  Sabbath  or 
some  appointed  time, — Cain  and  Abel  brought  their  offer- 
ings to  the  Lord,  at  some  appointed  place,  from  which 
they  went  into  the  field  where  the  fatal  deed  was  done. 

The  act  of  sacrifice  was  a  religious  one,  doubtless  a 
commandment  of  the  Lord ;  for  God  says,  "  In  vain  do  we 
worship  him,  after  the  commandments  of  men ;"  but  the 
result  was  envy,  hate,  and  murder.  The  enemies  of  relig- 
ion and  infidels  exclaim,  concerning  this  and  many  other 
things  connected  with  religion :  "  Heu  quantum  est  re- 
ligio  causa  malorum."  "  What  strife,  what  wars,  what 
bloodshed  and  misery  have  grown  out  of  religion !  " 

It  becomes  us  to  inquire  whether  it  is  not  the  abuse, 
not  the  use  of  religion  ;  and  therefore  irreligion  and  not 
religion  which  is  the  true  cause  of  the  evils  complained 
of.  A  writer  of  the  New  Testament  tells  us  the  cause  of 
this  murder  was  the  hatred  of  one  brother  towards  the 
other,  the  result  of  his  own  evil  works.  On  this  account 
was  the  murder  committed. 

Both  of  the  offerings  were  right  in  themselves,  if  pre- 
sented in  the  right  spirit.  The  sacrifice  of  the  wicked 
may  be  an  abomination  to  the  Lord,  if  not  offered  in  a 
right  spirit,  no  matter  what  the  sacrifice  be.  The  sac- 
rifices of  the  Lord  are  a  broken  spirit  and  a  contrite 
heart.  JSTothing  can  be  accepted  without  these.  Moses, 
who  by  God's  direction  appointed  so  many  bloody  sacri- 
fices, was  meek  above  all  men  upon  earth. 

Let  us  see  if  we  cannot  find  out  why  Abel's  sacrifice 
of  a  lamb  was  accepted,  and  Cain's  offering  of  the  fruits 


ON  THE   DEATH   OF  ABEL.  173 

of  the  earth  was  rejected,  although  both  are  so  plainly- 
enjoined  in  God's  word. 

AVe  do  not  read  of  anything  good  or  bad  in  either  of 
these  brothers  before  this  event,  which  should  make  the 
difference  manifested  by  God  in  accepting  the  one  and 
rejecting  the  otlier,  though  there  must  have  been  a  difier- 
ence  in  their  hearts  before  God.  The  apostle  tells  us  that 
"  by  faith  Abel  offered  unto  God  a  more  excellent  sacri- 
fice than  Cain,"  where  he  is  speaking  of  the  faith  of  a 
penitent  sinner  towards  Christ.  This  serves  as  a  key  to 
unlock  the  mystery.  Moses  is  spoken  of  as  believing  in 
Christ,  in  the  midst  of  all  his  offerings.  Cain's  faith  is 
not  spoken  of.  Must  there  not  have  been  something  de- 
ficient in  that,  as  there  is  in  many  proud  moralists  who 
place  their  religion  in  some  love  and  obedience  to  God, 
but  have  no  sense  of  sin  and  feel  no  need  of  a  Saviour  ? 
May  not  this  have  been  the  first  beginning  of  infidelity 
in  the  world, — the  proud  rejection  of  the  hope  set  before 
us  in  the  Redeemer,  "  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world  ?  " 

Scarcely  had  our  first  parents  sinned,  when  a  promise 
was  made  of  some  deliverer.  "The  seed  of  the  woman 
shall  bruise  the  serpent's  head"  was  supposed  to  contain 
the  promise  of  a  Saviour  in  the  person  of  one  who  is  called 
"the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world  "  for 
the  sins  of  man.  To  this  the  sacrifice  of  Abel  had  reference, 
while  that  of  Cain  had  none,  but  was  mere  natural  religion 
offering  uj)  something  to  God  by  an  unhumbled  creature. 
The  narrative  of  Moses  surely  favors  this  view  of  it. 

When  Cain  became  wroth  at  the  rejection  of  his  sacri- 
fice, the  Lord  said  to  him,  "Why  art' thou  wroth,  and  why 
is  thy  countenance  fallen  ? "  "If  thou  doest  well,  shalt  thou 
not  be  accepted  ? "  that  is.  If  thou  art  a  holy  man,  and 
doest  no  wrong,  shalt  thou  not  be  accepted  for  this? — 
"and  if  thou  doest  not  well,  sin  lieth  at  the  door ;  "  that 


174  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

is,  a  sin  offering ;  a  Lamb  lietli  or  crouchetli  at  the  door, 
whom  thou  mayest  slay  and  oifer  for  thy  sins  as  a  penitent 
believer. 

Such  is  the  translation  and  interpretation  of  this  passage 
by  able  commentators,  though  there  is  some  diiference  of 
opinion  about  it.  But  all  believe  that  the  sacrifice  of 
Abel  had  reference  to  the  promised  deliverance  of  the 
human  race,  by  one  to  be  born  of  a  woman  ;  and  that  all 
the  animal  sacrifices  ordained  by  God  were  typical  of  him, 
and  derived  their  virtue  from  him  who  was  emphatically 
called  "  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world," 
and  who,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  was  offered  up  in  the  per- 
son of  Christ  for  the  sins  of  men.  This,  indeed,  may  seem 
foolishness  to  the  Greek,  and  be  a  stumblingblock  to  the  Jew, 
and  doubtless  appeared  so  to  Cain,  who  professed  a  diff'er- 
ent  sort  of  religion.  It  has  so  appeared  to  numbers  in  all 
ages,  whose  reason  and  humanity  are  shocked  at  the  sacri- 
fice of  innocent  animals.  Thus  Plato,  the  philosopher, 
says,  "At  first  no  animals  were  offered,  but  only  the  fruits 
of  the  earth  and  trees."  And  Ovid,  though  not  ques- 
tioning the  early  practice  of  animal  sacrifices,  yet  pleads 
for  the  unoff'ending  victims : 

"  Qnam  meruistis,  Ores,  placidum  pecus, 
Vitaque  magis,  quam,  inorti  juvabis 
Nou  bove  mactato  celestia  numina  gandent." 

As  to  the  reasonableness  of  the  revelation  of  a  Redeemer 
to  our  first  parents,  much  might  be  said. 

If  God,  at  the  first  formation  of  man,  made  himself 
human  to  him  as  the  Creator  and  Lawgiver ;  taught  him 
speech  and  all  other  things  necessary  for  his  existence  and 
happiness,  in  his  first  state, — andwho  can  doubt  this  ? — then, 
when  man's  condition  was  so  changed  by  the  fall,  if  God 
determined  on  doing  more  for  him  suitable  to  his  fallen 
state,  may  we  not  expect  that  he  would  reveal  this  also  to 


ON  THE  DEATH  OF  ABEL.  175 

liim  ?  Is  not  tliis  necessary  to  liis  cooperation  with  God 
in  applying  the  remedy  ?  If  God  determined  to  save  man 
by  the  death  and  atonement  of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ,  and 
by  the  renewing  influence  of  his  Spirit,  is  it  not  reasonable 
that  he  should  reveal  this  by  such  means  and  in  such  meas- 
ure as  shall  seem  best  to  him  ?  Is  it  unreasonable  to  be- 
lieve that  God  taught  our  first  parents  that  this  redemp- 
tion was  the  great  object  of  animal  sacrifices,  and  that 
they  looked  forward  to  the  great  sacrifice  which  gave  vir- 
tue to  all  others  ? 

Our  first  mother  expected  such  a  Deliverer  to  be  born  of 
her,  but  was  disappointed.  Doubtless  other  antediluvian 
mothers  expected  it.  After  the  flood,  the  expectation  con- 
tinued ;  and  after  the  separation  of  Abraham  and  his  pos- 
terity from  the  rest  of  the  world,  Jewish  mothers  were 
expecting  it  still  more,  as  the  Messiah  was  to  be  in  the 
line  of  Abraham.  All  the  mythologies  in  the  world  were 
full  of  this  tradition,  and  many  nations  claimed  to  have 
received  the  fulfilment  of  it.  Nothing  was  so  well  calcu- 
lated to  humble  men  and  to  produce  penitence,  as  the  belief 
that  his  sins  were  so  great  as  to  require  the  incarnation 
and  sacrifice  of  God  himself,  in  the  form  of  man :  all  the 
bloody  sacrifices  typified  this. 

That  they  were  appointed  by  God  may  be  inferred  from 
the  fact  that  he  accejited  and  thus  approved  of  Abel's 
sacrifice,  and  of  the  same  kind  of  sacrifices  in  so  many 
other  instances  afterwards,  as  of  Koah,  Abraham,  Isaac, 
etc.,  etc.,  and  under  the  Levitical  dispensation.  If  they 
were  mere  commandments  of  men,  would  they  thus  have 
honored  them  ? 

Moses,  indeed,  gives  us  no  account  of  the  divine  institu- 
tion of  sacrifice  before  the  flood,  but  the  particular  manner 
in  which  he  mentions  them  shows  conclusively  its  j^revi- 
ous  and  early  existence,  and  of  course  its  establishment 
by  God  himself. 


176  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

Altliongli  the  first  and  strongest  and  most  natural  feeling 
of  man,  when  discarded  from  the  favor  of  God,  must  have 
been,  How  can  I  recover  it — how  can  I  avert  or  postpone 
tlie  threatened  death  ?  yet  surely  the  last  thought  of  his 
mind  and  hope  of  his  heart  would  be,  that  the  death  of 
some  unoffending  animal  might  propitiate  God's  favor,  and 
avert  his  threatened  death.  That  hope  must  come  from 
some  other  source  than  man — even  from  God  himself. 

The  fact  of  tliere  being  skins  of  beasts  used  for  clothing 
by  our  first  parents  makes  it  most  probable  that  immedi- 
ately after  the  fall  sacrifices  were  enjoined  and  practised ; 
for  we  read  nothing  of  the  permission  of  animal  food  to 
man  until  the  renewal  of  the  human  race  after  the  flood. 
Tliat  sacrifices  of  animals  prevailed  before  the  flood  is 
evident,  also,  from  the  fact  that  Noah,  by  the  command  of 
God,  took  with  him  into  the  ark  such  animals  as  were  used 
in  sacrifice,  as  well  as  others,  and  that  his  first  act,  after 
coming  out  of  the  ark,  was  to  build  an  altar,  and  sacrifice 
to  that  God  who  had  so  wonderfully  preserved  him. 

In  this  we  have  the  first  of  those  sacrifices  which,  from 
the  family  of  Noah,  so  soon  spread  through  the  whole 
world. 

I  will  not  speak  of  the  sacrifices  of  Abraham,  Isaac, 
Jacob,  and  others,  before  the  days  of  Moses ;  nor  will  I 
speak  of  those  specially  appointed  to  the  Jews,  in  whose 
ritual  "almost  all  things  w^ere  purged  with  blood;"  but 
I  will  proceed  to  show,  according  to  the  plan  of  this  book, 
that  the  divine  appointment  of  sacrifice,  from  the  first,  is 
one  of  the  most  univei'sal  traditions  prevalent  among  men. 

Mr.  Faber,  who  has  examined  this  subject  most  exten- 
sively, afiirms  that  "Throughout  the  whole  w^orld  he  finds 
a  notion  prevalent  that  the  gods  could  only  be  appeased 
by  bloody  sacrifices ;  and  its  universality  proves  that  all 
nations  have  borrowed  it  from  the  same  common  source. 
There  is  no  heathen    people  which   can  specify  a  time 


ON  THE  DEATH  OF  ABEL.  177 

wlien  it  was  witliout  sacrifice.  All  have  equally  had  it,  from 
a  time  which  cannot  be  reached  by  their  genuine  records." 
Tradition  alone  can  be  bronght  forward  hj  the  Gentiles 
to  account  for  its  origin.  That  tradition  sa^'s,  that  "  the 
Egyptian  Ilot/i,  or  Taut,  (the  same,  he  thinks,  with  Adam,) 
was  the  original  inventor  of  sacrifices."  Elsewhere  it 
says  that  Osiris, — the  same,  he  believes,  with  Dionusus,  or 
Noah, — is  the  god  who  first  instructed  men  in  sacrifices. 

Janus,  also,  the  first  father,  taught  the  Italians  sacrifices. 
Phoroneus  of  Argos  offered  the  first  sacrifices  to  Juno. 
The  Chinese  Fohi  raised  seven  kinds  of  animals  for  sac- 
rifices to  the  Great  Spirit.  The  Babylonian  Zizuthus, 
on  quitting  the  ark,  built  an  altar,  and  sacrificed  to  the 
gods. 

The  same  was  said  of  the  Grecian  Deucalion.  Tlie  same 
is  said  of  the  British  Hu,  who  sailed  over  the  flood,  with 
seven  companions,  and  was  emphatically  called  the  sacri- 
ficer.  All  of  these  trace  the  origin  of  sacrifices  to  one  of 
the  great  fathers  of  the  human  family,  Adam,  or  Noah, 
though  called  by  various  names  according  to  the  diversity 
of  languages.  There  is  no  part  of  religious  worship  less 
changed  than  this,  as  to  the  modes  of  observing  it,  though 
the  objects  of  worship  have  been  so  numerous  and  so  varied. 

"VYe  will  mention  some  few  of  the  reasons  assigned  for 
animal  sacrifices.  Caesar,  the  infidel  of  Eome,  says  that 
the  Druids  of  Gaul  held  that  unless  the  life  of  man  was 
given  for  the  forfeited  life  of  man,  the  Deity  of  the  im- 
mortal gods  could  not  be  appeased. 

The  Gothic,  or  Sythic  Scandinavians  laid  it  down  as  a 
principle,  that  the  efi:'usion  of  the  blood  of  animals  appeased 
the  anger  of  the  gods,  and  their  justice  turned  aside  upon 
the  victims  those  strokes  which  were  destined  for  men. 

Herodotus  informs  us  that  the  Egyptians,  in  his  day, 
having  cut  oflP  the  head  of  the  animal,  heaped  many  im- 
precations upon  it.     The  mode  of  imprecation  was  the 
12 


178  THE   BIBLE   i\ND  THE   CLASSICS. 

wishing  that  whatever  evil  was  to  befall  the  sacrificer 
himself,  or  Egypt,  might  fall  upon  that  head  :  in  conse- 
quence of  which  none  would  on  anj  account  eat  of  the 
head  of  a  beast. 

Such,  says  Mr.  Faber,  was  the  sentiment  of  the  Athe- 
nians and  Massilians,  in  their  remarkable  animal  sacrifice 
of  a  man  for  the  welfare  of  the  state.  They  loaded  him 
with  the  most  dreadful  curses.  They  prayed  that  the  wrath 
of  the  gods  might  fall  upon  his  devoted  head,  and  thus  be 
diverted  from  the  rest  of  the  citizens.  They  solemnly 
called  upon  him  to  be  their  ransom  and  their  redemption, 
life  for  life,  and  body  for  body.  After  this  ceremoiiy,  they 
cast  him  into  the  sea  as  an  offering  to  Neptune. 

In  the  history  of  the  Chinese  empire,  "  Ching  Tang,"  it  is 
stated  that  in  a  drought  of  seven  years  the  sacrifice  of  a 
man  was  required.  The  aged  monarch  offered  himself  as 
a  victim,  with  prayers  that  God  would  accept  his  death 
as  an  expiation  for  the  sins  of  the  people.  The  will, 
however,  was  accepted  for  the  deed,  as  in  the  case  of 
Abraham  with  his  son  Isaac.  The  Jewish  rabbis,  in 
their  books,  are  full  of  the  same,  and  to  this  day  the 
principle  of  sacrifice  and  substitute  is  set  forth  in  the 
private  offerings  of  Jewish  families, — die  national  temple 
worship  being  done  away,  or  impossible.  Each  father  of 
a  family,  according  to  Buxtorf,  brings  forth  a  cock,  and, 
striking  it  three  times  on  the  head,  at  each  blow  says, 
"  May  this  cock  be  accepted  in  exchange  for  me.  May 
he  succeed  to  my  place.  May  he  be  an  expiation  for  me." 
Then  choking  the  animal,  he  mentally  confesses  that  he 
himself  is  worthy  of  strangulation.  He  then  cuts  its 
throat,  silently  reflecting  that  he  is  worthy  to  be  slain. 
Then  he  dashes  it  to  the  ground,  to  denote  that  he  is  wor- 
thy to  be  stoned.  Then  roasts  it  at  the  fire,  to  show  that 
he  deserves  to  be  burned.  Thus  the  animal  suffers  four 
kinds  of  death. 


ON  THE  DEATH  OF  ABEL.  179 

111  the  Indian  mythology,  we  learn  that  Menu,  their 
great  father,  had  three  sons,  one  of  whom  was  slain  in  the 
great  act  of  performing  sacrifice.  Now  Adam,  though  he 
had  other  children  afterwards,  had  three  principal  ones. 
The  only  ones  mentioned  were  Cain,  Abel,  and  Seth. 
These  were  doubtless  the  three  sons  who  were  celebrated 
as  the  Cabiri  in  the  mysteries  of  the  Corybantes  and 
others,  and  who  were  sometimes  confounded  with  the 
three  sons  of  Koah,  the  father  of  the  new  world.  The 
mysteries  of  the  ancients  were  scenic  representations, 
according  to  Faber,  Bryant,  and  others,  of  the  events  of 
paradise,  and  the  deluge.  The  slaughtered  brother,  men- 
tioned above,  was  consecrated  as  a  god,  and  worshipped 
by  the  Thessalonians  with  bloody  hands. 

The  poets  also  are  full  of  deprecating  as  well  as  expia- 
tory sacrifices.  Homer  makes  one  of  his  characters  say  to 
the  ruthless  hero  of  his  poem,  the  vengeful  Achilles,  "  It 
befits  thee  not  to  have  a  merciful  heart.  The  very 
gods  themselves  are  capable  of  being  turned  ;  for  with  sac- 
rifices and  vows,  libations  and  the  odor  of  victims,  sup- 
pliant men  turn  them  aside  for  their  purposes  whenever 
any  one  sins  and  transgresses." — Iliad  of  Horner^  hook  2th. 
"  Gifts,"  says  Ovid,  in  his  "  Art  of  Love,"  "  captivate 
both  men  and  gods.  Jupiter  himself  is  appeased  by  the 
gifts  Avhich  are  ofiered  to  him." — Book  Sr'd.  Perseus, 
in  allusion  to  the  pagan  sacrifices,  which  he  satirizes,  asks, 
"  With  what  bribe  would  you  purchase  the  ears  of  the 
gods  ?  Shall  your  oblation  be  the  lungs  and  milk  of  a 
slaughtered  victim  ? " 

That  the  divine  appointment  of  sacrifices  is  the  true 
view  of  the  subject,  though  disputed  by  some  who  say 
"  Man  might  have  thought  of  it  himself,  and  begun  it 
without  a  command,"  we  adduce  the  following  opinion 
of  a  celebrated  Jewish  rabbi :  "Abel  (says  Philo  the 
Jew,  who  flourished  in  the  first  century  of  the  Christian 


180  THE   BIBLE  AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

era)  brouglit  neither  the  same  oblation  as  Cain,  nor  in  the 
same  manner ;  but  instead  of  things  inanimate  he  brought 
things  animate,  and  instead  of  later  and  secondary  pro* 
ducts  he  brought  the  oldest  and  the  first ;  for  he  brought 
his  sacrifices  from  the  firstlings  of  his  flock,  and  always 
fat,  according  to  the  divine  command." 

The  following,  from  St.  Augustine,  shows  what  this 
great  father  thought :  "  For  the  prophetic  immolation  of 
blood,  testifying  from  the  very  commencement  of  the  hu- 
man race  the  future  passion  of  the  Mediator,  is  a  matter 
of  great  antiquity,  inasmuch  as  we  find  that  Abel,  in 
Holy  Scriptures,  is  the  first  to  have  oflfered  up  the  pro- 
phetic immolation." 

The  testimony  of  Athanasius  concerning  all  those  things 
which  came  down  from  the  first  ages,  and  including  this 
among  the  rest,  is  very  strong:  "What  Moses  taught, 
those  things  his  predecessor,  Abraham,  had  preserved. 
And  what  Abraham  had  preserved,  with  these  things 
Noah  and  Enoch  were  well  acquainted,  for  they  made  a 
distinction  between  clean  and  unclean,  and  were  accept- 
able to  the  Deity.  Thus  also  in  like  manner  Abel  bore 
testimony,  for  he  knew  what  he  had  learned  from  Adam, 
and  Adam  himself  taught  only  what  he  had  previously 
learned  from  the  Lord."  In  this  manner  it  must  have 
been  that  the  sacrifice  of  animals,  typical  of  the  great  sac- 
rifice, came  down  from  Adam  to  Noah  and  his  three 
sons ;  and,  after  the  dispersion  of  Babel  to  the  various 
nations  and  tribes  of  the  earth,  being  corrapted  in  its  pas- 
sage until  human  victims  were  immolated,  and  all  the 
abominations  of  idolatry  were  introduced.  It  was  neces- 
sary that  the  Lord  should  separate  a  peculiar  people,  and 
through  them  restore  the  entire  sacrifice,  and  by  his  proph- 
ets denounce  the  abominations  which  had  taken  its 
place.  Alluding  to  the  bloody  rites  of  ancient  Palestine 
and  the  surrounding  countries,  where  even  infants  were 


ON  THE  DEATH  OF  ABEL.  181 

slaughtered  by  tlion sands,  the  prophet  Micah  exclaims, 
"  Shall  I  give  my  first-born  for  my  transgression,  the  fruit 
of  my  body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul  ? "  The  time  was  at 
hand  when  the  sacrifice  of  all  the  animals  was  to  be  done 
away  with,  "  for  it  was  impossible  that  the  blood  of  bulls 
and  of  goats  should  take  away  sin."  The  blood  of  Christ, 
"  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,"  was 
appointed  for  that  purpose.  In  his  blood  alone  was  the 
atonement;  all  other  sacrifices  ordained  by  God  were 
types  and  prophecies  of  tliis.  Tlie  bloody  rites  of  pagan- 
ism were  only  the  corruption  and  abuse  of  this ;  but  the 
abuse  of  anything  must  of  course  be  subsequent  to  its 
use,  and  thus  establishes  it.  Such  is  the  principle  upon 
which  the  argument  of  our  book  is  founded. 

To  the  foregoing  I  add  something  from  the  learned  my- 
thologist,  Bryant,  taken  from  Sanchoniathon,  the  ancient 
historian  of  Phoenicia.  He  speaks  of  the  sacrifice  by  the 
god  Chronns  (the  same  as  El  or  Ilus)  of  his  son  to  his  fa- 
ther Oaranus,  and  whose  example  was  followed  in  the 
natioif  by  the  establishment  of  an  expiatory  sacrifice, which 
was  considered  as  peculiarly  mystical,  having  reference  to 
things  yet  to  come.  After  giving  a  full  account  of  it,  Mr. 
Bryant  concludes :  "According  to  this.  El,  the  supreme 
deity,  whose  associates  were  the  Elohim,  was  in  process 
of  time  to  have  a  son,  well  beloved,  his  only  begotten,  '  to 
be  conceived  of  grace,'  as  some  render  it,  but,  according 
to  my  interpretation,  '  of  the  fountain  of  light.'  He  was 
to  be  off'ered  up  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  father,  by  way  of  sat- 
isfaction and  redemption,  to  atone  for  their  sins  and  avert 
the  just  vengeance  of  God.  He  was  to  make  the  grand 
sacrifice,  invested  with  the  emblems  of  royalty."  Mr. 
Bryant  leaves  it  to  his  readers  to  say  whether  this  does 
not  refer  to  an  early  tradition  of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ. 
He  evidently  inclines  to  that  opinion,  and  calls  it  "a  most 
wonderful  piece  of  history." 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE  CHERUBIM  OF  THE  GARDEN  OF  EDEN. 

In  the  last  verse  of  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis  it  is 
written,  that  the  Lord  "  drove  ont  the  man  ;  and  he  placed 
at  the  east  of  the  garden  of  Eden  cherubims,  and  a  flaming 
sword  which  turned  every  way,  to  keep  the  way  of  the 
tree  of  life."  Various  translations  of  this  passage,  differing 
somewhat  from  each  other,  with  differing  explanations, 
have  been  given.  Mr.  Faber  appears  to  have  studied  this 
subject  very  carefully,  by  the  light  of  scripture  and  tradi- 
tion, and  I  shall  give  his  statement,  "  We  are  told,"  he 
says,  "  by  the  sacred  historian,  that  when  the  first  pair  was 
expelled  from  paradise,  God  placed  on  the  eastern  «ide  of 
the  garden  certain  beings  called  cheruhitn,  to  preserve  the 
way  to  the  tree  of  life.  The  particular  form  of  these  beings 
is  not  specified  by  Moses  ;  but  it  is  evident  that  the  Israel- 
ites were  well  acquainted  with  it,  for  we  find  that  when 
the  workmen  were  ordered  to  make  cherubim  for  the 
tabernacle,  no  directions  were  given  them  as  to  the  shape 
of  these  sacred  hieroglyphics  ;  nor  had  they  occasion  to 
make  the  least  inquiry  concerning  it."  But,  although 
Moses  is  silent  on  the  subject,  the  prophet  Ezekiel  has 
provided  us  with  a  very  minute  and  ample  description  of 
the  cherubic  emblems.  From  him  we  learn  that  they 
were  compounded  of  four  different  animals,  of  Avhich  man 
was  the  most  prominent,  viz.,  the  man,  the  bull,  the  lion, 
and  the  eagle.  So  remarkable  an  appearance  (says  Mr. 
Faber)  as  that  of  the  cherubim,  when  they  were  first  ex- 


CHERUBIM  OF  THE  GARDEN.  183 

hibited  before  the  garden  of  paradise,  could  not  easily  be 
forgotten,  even  supposing  that  their  manifestation  was 
only  of  a  temporary  nature  ;  but,  he  adds,  so  far  as  I 
can  judge,  we  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  it  was 
not  of  a  merely  temporary  nature. 

Under  the  Levitical  economy,  which  was  ancient  patri- 
archism  adapted  to  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the 
children  of  Israel,  and  ordained  by  God  for  special  pur- 
poses, the  cherubic  symbols  were  placed  at  the  adytum, 
or  entrance  of  the  tabernacle,  and  afterwards  in  the 
sanctuary  of  the  temple.  As  they  were  used  for  religious 
purposes  under  the  law,  so  may  we  fairly  infer  that  they 
were  thus  used  under  the  patriarchal  dispensation,  both 
before  and  after  the  flood.  The  force  of  the  words  used 
by  Moses  is,  that  they  were  placed  in  a  tabernacle,  as 
they  were  afterwards  under  the  Levitical  dispensation. 
The  flaming  sword  turning  every  way,  is,  he  rather 
thinks,  better  rendered,  "A  bright  blaze  of  bickering  fire." 
Such  was  the  manifestation  of  the  divine  glory,  the  cher- 
ubim of  the  Mosaic  dispensation.  This  was  called  the 
Presence  of  the  Lord^  or  the  sheldnah — the  fiery  symbol  of 
the  divine  presence. 

No  one  was  permitted  to  enter  the  holy  of  holies,  where 
this  manifestation  of  God  was,  but  the  high  priest,  and 
he  only  once  a  year — thus  shadowing  forth  the  exclusion 
of  Adam  and  his  posterity  from  paradise.  When  there- 
fore we  read  of  the  wicked  Cain  going  forth  from  the 
''''presence  of  the  Lord^''  we  must  believe  that  he  left  that 
part  of  the  land  where  this  manifestation  of  God  was, 
and  where  Adam,  and  Seth,  and  the  more  pious  antedilu- 
vians continued  to  reside.  ISToah  and  his  sons  were  doubt- 
less familiar  with  the  form  of  the  cherubim,  and  after  the 
flood  made  use  of  it  as  a  symbol  of  the  divine  presence. 
We  may  therefore  reasonably  expect  to  find  it  perverted 
and  abused,  as  all  other  things  are  in  the  hands  of  men, 


184  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

when  the  various  families  or  nations  descending  from 
Noah  spread  over  the  earth  and  adopted  their  various 
idolatries,  while  God  thought  proper  to  continue  it  in 
his  true  temple  and  worshij)  according  to  its  original 
design  and  use.  Monstrous  and  ridiculous  as  these  per- 
versions are  in  the  heathen  world,  they  are  not  more  so 
than  many  other  caricatures  of  divine  institutions. 

But  now  let  us  see  what  this  great  hieroglyphic, — this 
first  of  hieroglyphics,  the  source  of  all  others, — has  led 
to  in  the  heathen  world,  and  what  testimony  to  the 
divine  institution  may  he  drawn  from  the  imitation 
and  perversion  and  caricature  of  it  in  all  ages  and  coun- 
tries. It  is  impossible  that  any  candid  person  can  take  a 
survey  of  all  the  strange  and  monstrous  compounds  of 
which  we  read  in  ancient  history  and  worship,  without 
tracing  them  to  a  common  origin. 

I  first  mention,  as  the  opinion  of  Faber  and  other 
learned  men,  the  celebrated  dog  Cerberus,  with  three 
heads, — the  dog,  the  wolf,  and  the  lion, — and  who  was  the 
keeper  of  hell,  in  the  Hades  and  Tartarus  of  the  Greeks, 
l^ext,  that  of  Hecate,  or  the  infernal  Diana,  who  is  rep- 
resented as  having  the  heads  of  a  horse,  a  dog,  and  a 
lion.  The  Osiris  of  the  Egyptians,  and  Molock  and 
Mithras,  are  also  many-headed.  The  Minotaur  had  the 
head  of  a  man  and  the  body  of  a  bull.  In  the  Zendevesta 
of  the  Persians  two  persons  appear,  one  at  the  beginning 
of  the  old  and  the  other  at  the  beginning  of  the  new 
world,  compounded  of  a  man,  a  bull,  and  a  horse.  The 
bull-man  of  the  Persians  was  doubtless  the  Centaur  of  the 
classical  writers,  which  was  composed  of  a  man,  a  horse, 
and  a  bull.  There  was  also  an  Orphic  deity  called  Chro- 
nus,  or  Hercules,  having  the  face  of  a  man,  the  head  of  a 
lion,  and  the  body  of  a  dragon,  to  which  some  add  the 
wings  of  a  bird.  The  celebrated  Sjihinx  had  the  head  of 
a  woman,  the  wings  of  a  bird,  the  claws  and  body  of  a 


CHERUBIM  OF  THE  GARDEN.  186 

lion.  Similar  monsters  may  also  be  read  of  in  the  Ger- 
man, the  Celtic,  and  the  East  Lidia  histories.  In  the 
Hindoo  system  and  history,  to  which  we  have  already 
referred,  there  is  a  being  composed  of  a  man  and  an  eagle, 
which  is  placed  in  a  pass  leading  to  their  high  garden 
answering  to  the  garden  of  Eden,  which  they  call  Garu- 
da.  The  most  striking  circumstance  in  his  history  is, 
that  a  part  of  his  office  is  to  keep  off  or  prevent  the 
approach  of  serpents. 

Herodotns  also  informs  ns  that  the  Phoenix  of  Persian 
history  is  said  to  have  resembled  an  eagle,  and  to  have 
been  placed  in  one  of  the  mountains  of  the  Indian  Cau- 
casus, the  same  region  claimed  by  the  Hindoos  as  the 
seat  of  the  garden  of  Eden,  and  the  landing  of  the  ark. 
A  more  probable  account  of  the  origin  of  these  unnatural 
beings  surely  cannot  be  found  than  we  have  in  the  books 
of  Genesis  and  Exodus. 

APPEi^DIX. 

To  the  foregoing  we  add  the  view  taken  by  the  learned 
Mr.  Fairbairn,  Professor  of  Divinity  in  the  ISTew  Church 
College,  at  Glasgow,  in  the  second  volume  of  his  elaborate 
work  on  the  "  Typology  of  Scripture."  We  only  give 
the  substance  of  it. 

As  the  tree  of  life  in  the  midst  of  tlie  garden  was  the 
special  object  which  the  cherubim  was  to  keep  or  guard 
from  the  approach  and  use  of  man  lest  he  should  eat  and 
live  for  ever,  Mr.  Fairbairn  very  properly  inquires  what 
this  was,  and  what  its  virtue  or  effect.  The  Mosaic  nar- 
rative is  very  brief,  but  other  scriptures  cast  some  light 
upon  it.  In  relation  to  this,  the  saying  of  St.  Augustine  is 
verified  :  "  In  vetere  Testamento  novum  latet ;  et  in  novo 
vetus  patet ;" — that  is,  "  In  the  Old  Testament  the  New  lies 
hid;    and  in  the  New  the  Old  is  brought  to  light."     The 


186  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

tree  of  life  was  in  the  midst  of  the  garden — its  very  posi- 
tion being  significant.  The  effect  upon  the  human  frame, 
whether  by  something  special  in  itself  and  differing  from 
others,  or  i3y  God's  particular  command,  was  peculiar.  It 
perpetuated  life. 

As  angels  may  have  certain  kinds  of  bodies,  that  is, 
spiritual  bodies, — and  the  saints  after  the  resurrection  cer- 
tainly will, — and  as  there  must  have  been  some  means  ap- 
pointed by  God  for  the  perpetuation  of  their  existence, 
not  having  eternal  life  in  themselves,  so  the  lives  of  our 
first  parents,  had  they  continued  faithful,  may  have  been 
perpetuated  by  eating  of  the  tree  of  life.  We  must  be- 
lieve that  this  tree  continued  for  some  time  after  the  ex- 
pulsion of  our  first  parents  from  the  garden,  or  else  there 
would  have  been  no  necessity  for  the  guard  which  was  set 
over  it.  The  sight  of  it,  or  knowledge  of  its  existence,  may 
have  had  a  moral  effect  in  letting  them  know  what  they 
had  lost,  and  to  encourage  the  hope  of  a  recovery,  if  not 
in  this  world,  yet  in  another.  It  was  a  symbol  of  immor- 
tal life.  Through  death  there  might  be  an  entrance  to  a 
tree  of  life  in  the  paradise  above.  The  Jews  thus  under- 
stood it.  "There  are  those,"  says  one  of  their  rabbis, 
"  who  say  that  the  tree  of  life  was  not  created  in  vain,  but 
the  men  of  the  resurrection  shall  eat  thereof  and  live  for 
ever."  The  New  Testament  certainly  encourages  the 
hope  of  restoration  to  the  tree  of  life  in  the  heavenly 
paradise.  "  To-day,"  saith  our  Lord  to  the  dying  thief, 
"  thou  shalt  be  with  me  in  paradise."  In  the  book  of 
Revelation,  our  Lord,  by  St.  John,  saith,  "  To  him  that 
overcometh  will  I  give  to  eat  of  the  tree  of  life  that 
is  in  the  midst  of  the  paradise  of  God."  And  again  : 
"  Blessed  are  they  that  keep  his  commandments,  that  they 
may  have  right  to  the  tree  of  life,  and  enter  in  through  the 
gates  into  the  city."  These  passages  seem  evidently  to 
recognize  a  divine  virtue  in  this  tree  of  paradise  to  per- 


CHERUBIM  OF  THE  GARDEN.  187 

petuate  liumaii  existence.  That  God  could  give  it  tliis 
power  or  virtue  no  man  can  undertake  to  deny.  "We 
must  always  remember,  however,  that  the  antetype  or 
thing  signified  is  greater  than  the  type  or  sign.  Al- 
though something  material  may  enter  into  the  paradise, 
or  new  heaven  and  earth,  yet  will  all  be  exalted,  and  the 
food  of  spiritual  bodies  be  far  superior  to  the  manna  of 
the  Israelites,  or  the  fabled  nectar  and  ambrosia  of  the 
pagan  deities  in  their  happy  abodes. 

And  now  what  were  these  cherubim,  and  what  their 
meaning  and  design  ?  "Was  not  the  flaming  sword  turn- 
ing every  way,  sufficient  to  guard  the  pass  into  Eden  and 
terrify  any  daring  intruder  ?  It  certainly  must  have  been 
designed  to  furnish  instruction,  and  answer  some  moral 
end.  Mr.  Fairbairn  considers  the  attempt  to  ascertain 
the  meaning  and  derivation  of  the  word  cherub  as  hope- 
less, but  thinks  that  other  scriptures  sufficiently  estab- 
lish the  symbolical  character  and  intended  use  of  the 
cherubim.  He  regards  them  not  as  any  unknown  figures 
or  imaginary  existences,  but  as  realities  and  specific  forms 
of  being,  though  not  as  a  distinct  and  permanent  order  of 
beings,  but  only  temporary,  for  certain  important  pur- 
poses. He  refers  to  the  different  places  in  scripture  where 
they  are  mentioned,  as  in  Exodus,  Ezekiel,  and  Revelation, 
with  the  variations  which  are  ascribed  to  them,  though  not 
at  all  affecting  their  main  character  and  object.  TJie  gar- 
den of  Eden  is  their  first  local  residence.  The  next  men- 
tion of  them  is  in  connection  with  the  tabernacle,  Mdiere 
the  figures  of  them  are  over  the  ark  and  on  either  side 
of  the  mercy-seat — the  throne  of  Jehovah — where  God 
promised  to  meet  Moses.  It  is  said  of  him,  that  "  lie 
dwelleth  between  the  cherubim."  Sometimes,  as  in  the 
Apocalypse,  they  are  called  beasts,  which  is  regarded  as 
an  unhappy  translation  of  the  original.  At  otliers  they 
are  called  seraphim  or  burning  ones,  as  in  the  sixth  chap- 


188  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

ter  of  Isaiah.  More  frequently  they  are  called  "  living 
ones."  This  title  is  given  to  them  not  less  than  thirty 
times  in  Ezekiel  and  the  Apocalypse.  In  reference  to  the 
title  seraphim  or  burning  ones,  and  to  what  is  said  of  the 
flaming  sword  in  the  hand  of  the  cherubim  in  Eden,  and 
to  the  outstretched  wings  of  them  over  the  ark  ready  to 
fly,  it  is  probable  that  God's  ministers  are  compared  to  a 
flame  of  fire  or  lightning. 

In  relation  to  the  combined  form  of  the  cherubim,  all 
agree  that  it  was  composed  of  a  man,  an  ox,  an  eagle, 
and  a  lion — the  man  being  predominant,  so  that  the  ap- 
pearance was  human.  These  three  creatures,  together 
with  man,  make  up,  according  to  the  most  remote  an- 
tiquity, the  most  perfect  form  of  animal  existence. 
Hence  the  old  Jewish  proverb :  "  Four  are  the  highest  in 
the  world — the  lion  among  the  beasts ;  the  ox  among 
tame  cattle ;  the  eagle  among  birds ;  man  among  all 
(creatures),  but  God  supreme  over  all."  So  that  these 
"  living  ones"  were  a  combination  of  all  creature  life  on 
earth,  issuing  from  the  fulness  of  the  Creator.  The  amal- 
gamation or  combination  of  all  in  one  would  exalt  even 
man.  In  some  things  the  lion,  the  eagle,  and  the  ox  sur- 
pass man,  and  are  looked  on  with  admiration  if  not  envy. 
The  lion  exceeds  him  in  strength  ;  the  ox  in  patient  endur- 
ance ;  the  eagle  in  swiftness,  though  all  so  inferior  in 
other  things.  If  any  should  still  say,  how  hideous  the 
combination,  as  seen  in  a  picture  and  in  the  worship  of 
the  heathen,  we  bid  them  look  on  man  himself,  the  lord 
of  creation,  the  noblest  of  all,  and  see  what  a  combination 
of  various  animals  lie  is ;  how  many  things  he  has  in 
common  with  all.  Nay,  if  disposed  to  disgust  at  combi- 
nation, let  them  remember  that  our  Lord  himself  was  a 
combination  of  very  man  and  very  God  as  to  the  spiritual 
part  of  him  ;  and  that  even  as  to  the  corporeal  was  tliis 
same  compound ;  and  even  in  his  glorified  state  will  be 


CHERUBIM  OF  THE  GARDEN.  189 

very  man  and  veiy  God,  reigning  over  his  saints.  To 
tliis  we  add,  that  although  these  forms  may,  among  the 
heatlien,  have  been  caricatured  and  perverted  to  idola- 
try, yet  it  does  not  appear  that  the  Jews,  in  any  of  their 
imitations  or  adoptions  of  pagan  rites  and  idolatry,  ever 
used  these  as  instruments  of  false  worship. 


CHAPTEK  XII. 

THE   PROGRESS   OF   CORRUPTION. 

It  lias  been  made  a  question,  whether  among  the  cor- 
ruptions of  the  old  world  the  sin  of  idolatry  found  its  way. 

When  we  consider  how  soon  it  commenced,  and  how 
rapidly  it  spread  among  the  descendants  of  Noah, — who 
has  been  well  called  "  the  orphan  of  the  old  and  father  of 
the  new  world," — and  how  much  human  nature  is  the  same 
in  all  ages,  and  what  a  remarkable  propensity  to  idolatry, 
under  every  dispensation,  whether  Patriarchal,  Jewish,  or 
Christian,  it  has  always  displayed,  we  are  led  to  think  it 
highly  probable.  And  yet  there  is  no  mention  of  it  in 
the  brief  history  of  our  fathers  before  the  flood.  It  may, 
however,  have  been  one  of  those  things  so  generally  known 
and  believed,  that  Moses  did  not  think  it  necessary  to 
make  particular  historical  mention  of  it. 

We  are  told  that  the  wickedness  of  man  was  great  in 
the  earth  ;  that  the  eartli  was  corrupt  before  God  ;  that  the 
earth  was  filled  with  violence,  so  that  it  repented  him  that 
he  had  made  man.  Now  all  this  might  be,  and  yet  man 
might  not  embrace  the  follies  of  idolatry.  There  are 
other  passages,  however,  from  which  we  may  probably 
draw  the  conclusion  that  verj^  false  views  of  God  had  been 
adopted.  When,  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  Genesis,  we  read 
of  men  and  the  daughters  of  men,  and  contrasted  with 
them  the  sons  of  God,  it  may  be  that  the  former  had  de- 
parted from  the  true  knowledge  and  worship  of  God,  in 
theory  as  well  as  practice  ;  so  that,  after  a  time,  by  inter- 


THE   PROGRESS   OF   CORRUPTION,  191 

marriage  the  whole  mass  of  mankind  had  become  cor- 
rupted. 

There  is  also  a  passage  in  the  same  chapter  which 
speaks  of  "  every  imagination  of  the  thoughts  of  men's 
hearts  being  only  evil  continually."  And  when  we  run 
over  some  of  the  many  passages  of  scripture  in  which 
the  imaginations  of  men's  hearts  are  spoken  of  and  con- 
demned, in  connexion  with  the  abominations  of  idolatry, 
the  probability  increases  in  our  minds  that  false  notions 
of  God  were  among  the  "evil  imaginations"  referred  to. 

But  whatever  be  the  truth  as  to  this,  it  is  certain  that 
man  became  corrupt  and  abominable  before  God.  Polyg- 
amy, which  our  Lord  says  was  not  in  the  beginning,  was 
soon  introduced,  as  it  was  again  shortly  after  the  deluge. 
Violence,  also,  and  the  love  of  pleasure  reigned.  They 
sat  down  to  eat  and  drink,  and  rose  up  to  play,  although, 
through  the  curse,  man  could  with  difficulty  get  bread 
with  the  sweat  of  his  brow.  Concerning  ISToah,  it  was 
said,  "This  same  shall  comfort  us,  concerning  our  work 
and  the  toil  of  our  hands,  because  of  the  ground  which 
the  Lord  hath  cursed."  There  was  doubtless  much  pov- 
erty then,  as  ever  since.  Marriage,  which  has  been  well 
declared  "  best  bliss  of  paradise  which  has  survived  the 
fall,"  to  which  the  union  of  Christ  and  his  church  has 
been  compared,  came  to  be  entered  into  only  with  a  view 
to  earthly  pleasure  and  gratification.  The  sons  of  God 
chose  them  wives  of  the  daughters  of  men  because  they 
were  fair;  and  giants  in  sin,  if  in  nothing  else,  were  the 
fruit.  The  earth  was  filled  with  violence.  Warriors  were 
the  great  men  of  the  earth,  and  it  is  not  wonderful  that  it 
should  have  grown  into  fable  that  they  made  war  with 
Heaven  itself;  and  truly  the  issue  was  the  destruction  of 
the  human  race,  though  mountain  was  piled  on  mountain 
(Pelion  on  Ossa)  for  the  assault. 

The  long  lives  of  the  ancients,  extending  to  eight  or  nine 


192  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

hundred,  and  in  one  instance  to  nearly  a  thousand  years, 
must  have  contributed  greatly  to  the  increase  of  human 
depravity  and  misery.  If  even  now,  in  seventy  years, 
there  be  some  evil  spirits  and  ambitious  men  who  can  inflict 
BO  much  misery  on  man,  what  must  have  been  the  amount 
of  mischief  perpetrated  by  one  whose  age  must  be  reck- 
oned by  centuries.  It  was  in  mercy,  truly,  that  God 
abridged  the  term  of  human  life,  and  reduced  it  to  its  pres- 
ent period.  "  Old  age  standeth  not  in  length  of  years ; 
but  wisdom  is  the  grey  hair  to  man,  and  unspotted  life  is 
old  age." 

"  In  hoary  youth  Methusalems  may  die ; 
Ah  !  how  misdated  on  their  flattering  tombs !  " 

Of  how  many  old  sinners  may  it  be  said, 

"  Poorer  for  the  plenty  poured — 
More  wretched  for  the  clemency  of  Heaven." 

But  some  may  say,  all  this  is  but  the  fable  of  Moses.  If 
so,  it  must  have  been  a  most  cunningly  devised  one,  being 
made  to  suit  so  many  other  fables  in  difi'erent  parts  of  the 
world,  and  with  whom  Moses  had  no  acquaintance  what- 
ever. Let  us  see  what  some  of  them  say.  The  ancient 
poets  and  philosophers  speak  of  four  successive  ages 
through  which  the  world  passes, — the  Golden,  the  Silver, 
the  Brazen,  and  the  Iron, — representing  their  characters  by 
the  comparative  value  of  the  four  metals.  The  last  is  the 
worst,  and  ends  in  the  destruction  of  the  world  by  the 
deluge.  But  in  many  of  the  ancient  writings  there  are 
two  series  of  such  ages,  set  forth  by  the  same  four  metals, 
— gold,  silver,  brass,  and  iron.  The  facts  mentioned  show 
clearly  that  the  second  series  commenced  immediately 
after  the  flood,  with  Noah  and  his  family — as  the  first  did 
with  Adam  and  his,  immediately  after  the  creation.  That 
the  first  age,  in  each,  was  the  purest ;  that  each  successive 
period  was  marked  by  gradual  deterioration,  sacred  and 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  CORRUPTION.         193 

profane  history  attest  most  clearly.  As  to  the  event  ter- 
minating the  first  series,  there  is  no  doubt.  The  deluge 
was  sent  to  purify  the  earth  from  the  deep  corruption 
which  covered  it.  The  human  race  began  anew,  with  the 
fiimily  of  Noah,  and  was  for  a  time  comparatively  pure  in 
its  religion  and  morals.  As  the  advent  of  Christ  drew 
near,  the  Jews  quoted  their  prophets,  and  the  pagans  their 
sibylline  verses  and  oracles,  in  proof  that  another  and 
better  and  more  enduring  golden  age  was  at  hand.  Vir- 
gil especially  alludes  to  this  in  an  eclogue  addressed  to 
Pollio;  but  as  this  will  be  the  subject  of  more  particular 
consideration  at  a  future  time,  we  pass  over  it  at  present, 
and  confine  our  remarks  to  the  fact  that  ancient  tradition 
speaks  of  a  deterioration  from  time  to  time  in  the  char- 
acter of  the  antediluvians,  ending  in  the  flood. 

Sometimes  the  ancients  confound  together  the  two  series 
of  ages,  those  before  and  those  after  the  flood,  as  they 
do  indeed  (according  to  their  doctrine  of  a  succession  of 
worlds)  Creation  and  the  Deluge,  Adam  and  his  children 
with  Noah  and  his.  We  only  state  the  general  result  of 
the  researches  of  such  men  as  Sir  William  Jones  and  others, 
in  saying  that  they  abound  with  references  to  the  com- 
parative character  and  condition  of  the  diflferent  ages. 
The  first,  as  we  have  said,  was  that  of  paradise  itself,  when 
all  things  abounded  spontaneously,  when  men  were  called 
"  the  supreme  and  happy  inhabitants  of  the  earth."  Then 
came  a  time  when  they  were  called  the  "  moderately  happy" 
inhabitants  of  the  earth  ;  and  then  a  time  when  the  "  least 
happy  "  inhabitants  of  the  earth  lived.  Then  came  the 
iron  age, — the  age  of  war  and  lust  and  violence  and  ra- 
pine ;  of  heroes  and  giants,  of  which  Ovid  says, 

"  Vivitur  ex  rapto  !     Non  hospes  ab  hospite  tutus, 
Non  socer  a  genero  ;  fratrum  quoque  gratia  rara  est, 
Victa  jacet  pietas." 

13 


194  THE   BIBLE  AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

As  to  the  long  lives  of  the  ancients,  which  contributed 
to  this  corruption,  let  us  see  what  tradition  says.  Jose- 
phus,  the  Jewish  historian,  a  man  of  great  learning  and 
study,  declares  that  all  who  had  written  on  the  subject  of 
antiquity,  whether  Greeks  or  barbarians,  agreed  with  him 
that  the  ancients  (those  before  the  flood)  lived  a  thousand 
years.  Of  course  he  used  a  round  number.  He  mentions 
the  names  of  Berosus,  Manetho,  and  nine  other  ancient 
authors  as  authority,  Hesiod,  the  Grecian  poet,  coeval 
with  Homer,  says,  that  in  the  silver  age, — that  immedi- 
ately succeeding  the  golden  age, — at  the  end  of  a  century 
men  were  infants.  He  of  course  did  not  mean  infants  in 
strength  either  of  body  or  mind,  but  only  as  by  compari- 
son with  their  whole  term  of  life. 

The  Chinese  have  indeed  some  wonderful  accounts  of 
the  longevity  of  their  forefathers,  saying  that  they  lived 
eight  or  ten  thousand  years.  But  we  know  how  prone  to 
exaggeration  the  Chinese  are  in  all  their  chronological 
calculations,  making  estimates  of  eclipses  of  the  sun  and 
moon  backwards,  and  thus  endeavoring  to  establish  the 
age  of  their  nation  to  be  thousands  of  years  before  that  of 
any  other  upon  eartli.  Or  it  may  be  that  theirs  were 
lunar  years,  as  some  would  have  those  of  Moses  to  be. 
That  it  was  a  most  ancient  tradition  among  them  that 
men's  lives  were  much  shortened,  is  proved  by  an  historical 
record.  The  emperor,  Hoang-Ti,  at  a  time  after  the  deluge 
when  men's  lives  were  shortened  to  three  hundred  years, 
proposed  an  inquiry  in  a  medical  book  of  which  he  was 
the  author, — "  Whence  it  happened  that  the  lives  of  their 
forefathers  were  so  long,  compared  with  the  lives  of  the 
present  generation."  Certain  it  is  that  the  life  of  man 
began  to  shorten  from  the  deluge ;  those  born  before  it 
living  longer  than  any  born  after  it,  and  those  born  imme- 
diately after  it  longer  than  those  at  a  later  period.  All 
history  testifies  to  this.     Some  attempt  to  evade  the  scrip- 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  CORRUPTION.         195 

tural  account  by  declaring  that  Moses  meant  months  or 
lunar  years,  instead  of  one  common  year  of  twelve  months, 
thus  reducing  the  Mosaic  account  to  one-twelfth  of  what 
we  understand  by  it.  The  folly  of  this  will  appear  by  con- 
sidering that  the  antediluvians  would  have  had  children 
when  mere  children  themselves,  and  thus  would  have 
fallen  short  of  many  old  men  in  our  own  time.  Methuse- 
lah would  have  been  only  eighty  years  old  at  his  death. 
Between  the  creation  and  the  deluge  there  would  have 
been  only  one  hundred  and  thirty  years,  and  only  some 
few  hundred  people  alive  on  the  earth  when  God  sent  the 
waters  of  the  deluge.  Abraham, — who,  according  to  Moses, 
died  at  a  good  old  age, — at  one  hundred  and  seventy-five 
— would  have  been  only  eight  years  old  when  Isaac  was 
born,  and  some  of  the  patriarchs  only  about  five  years  old. 
Some,  unable  to  deny  the  fact  of  the  longevity  of  the  ante- 
diluvians nor  disposed  so  to  do,  are  yet  anxious  to  find  out 
some  other  cause  than  God's  will  and  decree,  and  think 
that  some  changes  took  place  in  the  position  of  the  earth 
towards  the  sun  at  the  deluge,  which  interfered  with  the 
former  equability  of  the  seasons  and  the  healthiness  of  the 
atmosphere  ;  but  we  have  no  account  of  this.  Others 
think  that  the  material  which  composed  the  human  frame 
was  better  before  than  after  the  deluge.  Had  we  not  bet- 
ter resolve  it  all  into  the  will  of  God,  who  had  made  trial 
of  long  life  to  man  and  found  that  he  abused  it,  and  there- 
fore made  his  days  to  be  fewer? 

We  are  also  told  that  there  were  giants  in  the  earth  in 
those  days,  the  same  who  are  supposed  to  be  mighty  men 
— men  of  renown.  These  few  are  all  the  words  of  Moses 
concerning  these  men.  Other  giants  are  mentioned  in 
other  places  of  scripture.  We  read,  in  Deuteronomy  ii.,  of 
a  people  called  Anakims, — great  and  large  men, — which 
were  called  giants.  In  the  time  of  Moses,  only  Og,  the 
king  of  Bashan,  remained  of  the  giants,  and  he  was  killed 


196  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

in  the  time  of  Joshua.  In  the  days  of  David,  we  read  of 
Gohath.  The  bedstead  of  Og  was  of  enormous  dimensions, 
as  was  the  spear  of  Goliath.  But  the  bedsteads  of  kings 
and  warriors  were  made  for  ostentation  ;  and  the  weaver's 
beam,  to  which  Goliath's  spear  was  compared,  may  not 
have  been  so  large  as  some  sujDjjose.  Still  they  were  huge, 
gigantic  men,  and  that  there  have  been  on  earth  men  of 
immense  stature  cannot  be  denied.* 

There  are  occasionally  to  be  seen,  even  now,  men  who 
are  two  feet  higher  than  common  men ;  so  are  there  to  be 
seen  dwarfs  as  much  below  the  ordinary  stature  of  men, 
— and  a  few  such  will  make  much  noise  in  the  world.  In 
the  hands  of  the  poets, — Homer,  Hesiod,  and  Yirgil, — it  is 
not  wonderful  that  they  should  be  exaggerated  as  to  num- 
bers and  might,  as  the  feats  of  Tom  Thumb  and  Jack  the 
Giant-Killer  in  our  days.  Certain  it  is,  that  in  the  an- 
cient writers  horrid  descriptions  are  given  of  these  men 
as  pests  to  humanity,  and  as  by  their  blasphemy  and 
wickedness  bringing  down  the  judgment  of  the  deluge 
upon  the  earth.  The  poets,  in  their  flights,  make  them 
engage  in  a  regular  war  with  heaven,  piling  mountain  on 
mountain,  Pelion  on  Ossa,  and  hurling  burning  rocks 
against  the  sky, — but  the  scriptures  are  guilty  of  no  such 
exaggeration ;  they  give  you  the  true  foundation  of  all 
these  fables. 

Lucian,  of  whom  it  is  said  that  "  he  spared  neither 
gods  nor  men,"  has  given  us  an  account  that  comes  nearer 
to  the  real  truth  :  "  They  were  contentious,  and  did  many 
unrighteous  things ;    they  neither  kept  their  oaths,  nor 


*  Whoever  wishes  to  see  proofs  of  this  fact  let  him  visit  the  palace  of  Ver- 
sailles, in  France,  and  see  the  huge  bedstead  in  which  Louis  XIV.  slept  and  died. 
One  would  suppose  it  was  made  for  a  giant.  Let  him  visit  the  Horse  Armory  in 
the  Tower  of  Londou,  and  see  the  spears  and  other  armor  of  the  kings  of  Eng- 
land down  to  Charles  I.,  and  he  will  be  the  less  surprised  at  what  we  read  of  the 
armor  of  the  ancients. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  CORRUPTION.         197 

were  hospitable  to  strangers ;  for  which  reason  this  great 
misfortune  came  upon  them."  On  this  and  every  other 
subject  which  will  properly  admit  of  it,  we  must  make 
due  allowance  for  the  figurative  language  and  the  license 
of  poetry.  Thus,  when  the  spies  who  were  sent  into  the 
holy  land  returned  and  said  that  the  men  whom  they 
saw  were  so  large  that  they  were  but  as  the  gi-asshoppers 
before  them,  we  are  not  to  understand  this  literally  and 
strictly ;  moreover,  they  were  frightened  not  a  little,  and 
magnified  their  enemies.  As  to  the  language  of  the  poets, 
we  must  remember  how  large  a  use  of  fiction  our  own 
Milton  and  Cowley  have  indulged  in,  in  their  great  and 
sacred  poems. 

"  Pictoribus  atque  poetis,  quidlibet  audendi, 
Semper  fuit  aequa  potestas." 

The  daring  wickedness  of  these  giants  in  sin  as  well  as 
in  size,  has  given  rise  to  poems  in  ancient  days  called  the 
"  Wars  of  the  Titans,"  in  which  they  are  represented  as 
actually  assaulting  heaven  as  we  assault  a  stronghold  upon 
earth ;  but  there  are  circumstances  in  the  war  which  have 
led  to  diflferences  of  opinion  as  to  time  and  place  of  the 
same.  Some  think  it  to  be  the  rebellion  of  the  wicked 
antediluvians,  which  led  to  their  overthrow  by  the  deluge  ; 
others,  that  it  was  the  rebellion  of  the  builders  of  Babel, 
which  ended  in  the  confusion  of  language  and  their  dis- 
persion through  the  earth.  In  either  case  we  have  the 
testimony  of  pagan  poets  to  two  most  important  events 
in  the  Mosaic  history. 

We  have  only  to  add  to  this  statement  of  the  progress 
of  corruption  in  the  antediluvians,  that  God  showed  his 
long-suffering  towards  them  by  causing  ]S[oah  to  warn 
them  for  120  years  of  the  approaching  wrath.  This 
proving  vain,  the  ark  was  prepared  before  their  eyes, 
and,  doubtless,  with  due  explanation  of  its  object.  Of 
this  there  are  numerous  and  strikins:  traditions. 


CHAPTEE    XIII. 

ON    THE    KISE    AND    PROGRESS    OF    IDOLATRY. 

If,  at  the  first  formation  of  man,  God  revealed  himself 
as  his  Creator,  and  taught  him  how  to  worship  and  serve 
that  Creator,  bestowing  knowledge  and  holiness  on  him, 
as  both  the  Old  and  the  l^ew  Testament  declare;  if, 
after  the  fall,  God  revealed  to  man  his  purpose  of  redemp- 
tion through  one  born  of  a  woman,  but  equal  to  the  task 
of  restoration,  and  appointed  sacrifices  to  himself  prepar- 
atory to  and  typical  of  the  great  redemption ;  then  any 
deviation  from  that  appointment,  any  acknowledgment 
or  worship  of  any  being  or  object  save  him,  must  have 
been  a  daring  violation  of  duty  and  a  renewal  of  the 
disobedience  of  onr  first  parents,  though  in  a  difierent 
form. 

Seeing  that  God  held  such  familiar  intercourse  with 
men  in  their  own  form,  in  the  garden,  and,  as  is  most 
probable,  in  occasional  intercourse  afterwards,  it  must 
have  been  daring  impiety  to  be  looking  out  for  some 
other  god  or  gods  to  whom  they  might  off'er  worship ; 
as  it  was  with  the  Israelites,  when,  during  the  brief  ab- 
sence of  Moses  on  the  mount,  they  wished  for  some  other 
god.  How  or  where  the  thought  of  some  other  god 
originated  is  hidden  from  us. 

"  Causa  latet,  vis  est  notissima." 

Doubtless  he  who  is  called  the  father  of  lies,  who  may 
assume  the  garb  of  an  angel  of  light,  and  who  did  in  the 


PROGRESS  OF  IDOLATRY.  199 

form  of  a  subtle  serpent  deceive  our  first  parents  in  para- 
dise, had  much  to  do  with  it.  His  first  suggestion  might 
have  been  plausible ;  his  first  approaches  gentle  and 
gradual.  He  may  have  perverted  sacred  truths,  as  when 
he  dared  to  tempt  our  Saviour  in  the  wilderness,  inviting 
him  to  fall  down  and  worship  him.  He  may  have  begun 
his  work  of  mischief  by  perverting  the  blessed  ordinance 
of  sacrifice,  which  God  had  appointed  to  direct  the  faith 
and  hope  of  men  to  a  Saviour,  just  as  he  now  perverts 
the  great  Christian  feast — the  Lord's  Supper — into  an 
idolatrous  worship.  Whether  idolatry  or  polytheism  ex- 
isted before  the  flood  is  nowhere  positively  stated  in  the 
brief  narrative  of  Moses,  although  there  is  such  a  clear 
statement  of  the  deep  corruption  of  man,  and  the  deser- 
tion of  the  human  race  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  so  that  the 
waters  of  the  flood  were  required  for  its  cleansing,  or 
rather  its  extirpation.  But,  as  it  is  written  that  "  all  the 
imaginations  of  men's  thoughts  were  only  evil,  and  that 
continually,"  and  as  so  much  evil  has  ever  been  connected 
with  idolatry,  and  idolatry  commenced  so  soon  after  the 
deluge,  perhaps  within  one  hundred  years,  and  spread  so 
rapidly,  it  has  been  thought  that  it  was  only  the  renewal 
of  antediluvian  corruption  which  had  been  suppressed 
for  a  time  by  the  angry  judgments  of  God,  and  the  seeds 
of  which  had  been  lurking  in  the  hearts  of  some  of  the 
sons  of  ]^oah,  especially  in  that  of  Ham.  At  any  rate,  if 
it  did  exist  before  the  flood,  its  nature  must  have  been 
known  to  Noah  and  his  family. 

A  very  early  idolatry  after  the  flood,  according  to  his- 
tory, was  the  worship  of  the  sun  in  the  heavens,  and  soon 
after  that  of  the  other  heavenly  bodies.  Hence  it  has 
been  thought  probable  that  it  was  borrowed  from  the 
antediluvians,  and  did  not  grow  up  so  suddenly  without 
any  help  from  tradition  and  example. 

The  worship  of  the  sun  was  at  an  early  period  estab- 


200  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

lished  in  Clialdea,  beyond  the  Euphrates,  where  Terah 
and  Abraham  once  sojourned,  and  who,  for  a  time  per- 
haps, partook  somewhat  of  its  idolatry.  Here  was  the 
great  temple  of  Belus,  or  the  sun.  Sanchoniathon,  the 
Chaldean  historian,  or  whoever  wrote  the  work,  gives  the 
following  account  of  its  first  establishment :  "  In  the 
second  generation  of  men,  during  a  great  drought,  Genus 
and  Ge7ua  (supposed  by  Bishop  Cumberland  to  be  Cain 
and  Caina)  stretched  forth  their  hands  to  heaven,  in 
adoration  of  the  sun,  for  they  supposed  him  to  be  Beel 
Jamin,  or  the  Lord  of  the  heavens.  Afterwards,  in  the 
fifth  generation,  two  pillars  were  consecrated  to  the  ele- 
ments of  fire  and  wind.  And  at  length,  when  the  authors 
of  this  idolatry  were  dead,  similar  pillars  with  trunks  of 
trees  were  dedicated  to  them,  and  their  memory  was  pre- 
served by  anniversary  feasts."  Maimonides,  the  Jew, 
seems  to  favor  the  same  idea  in  the  following  passage : 
"  In  the  days  of  Enos,  the  son  of  Seth,  men  fell  into 
grievous  errors,  and  even  Enos  himself  partook  of  their 
infatuation."  Their  language  was,  that  "  Since  God  had 
placed  on  high  the  heavenly  bodies  and  used  them  as  his 
ministers,  it  was  evidently  his  will  that  they  should  re- 
ceive from  men  the  same  veneration  as  the  servants  of 
a  great  prince  justly  claim  from  the  subject  multitude." 

Impressed  with  this  notion  they  began  to  build  temples 
to  the  stars,  to  sacrifice  to  them  and  to  worship  them,  in 
the  vain  expectation  that  they  should  please  the  Creator 
of  all  things.  At  first,  indeed,  they  did  not  suppose  the 
stars  to  be  the  only  deities,  but  adored,  in  conjunction 
with  them,  the  Lord  God  Omnipotent.  In  process  of  time, 
however,  that  great  and  venerable  name  was  totally  for- 
gotten, and  the  whole  human  race  retained  no  other  re- 
ligion  than  the  worship  of  the  hosts  of  heaven.^ 

*  Mr.  Fabcr  says  that  Maimonides  has  rightly  understood  the  words  in  the 


PROGRESS  OF  IDOLATRY.  201 

Sanclioniathoii,  who  is  quoted  as  affirming  that  "  The 
first  worship  before  the  flood  was  of  the  heavenly  bodies," 
or  the  elements  of  fire  and  wind,  does  also  say  that  after 
the  flood  "The  first  deified  mortal  was  I^oah,  or  Chryson, 
and  that  the  several  members  of  his  family  after  their 
death  were  raised  to  the  rank  of  gods,  in  connection  with 
the  heavenly  bodies  " — thus  making  the  worship  of  he- 
roes or  celebrated  persons  follow  after  and  mingle  with 
the  hosts  of  heaven. 

This  species  of  idolatry  soon  enlarged  itself  into  the 
deification  and  worship  of  everything  in  nature  which 
had  life  and  power,  and  could  exert  any  influence  over 
other  things,  especially  generative  and  creative  power. 
The  sun,  moon,  and  stars  ;  the  wind,  fire,  trees,  vegetables  ; 
beasts  of  the  field,  fowls  of  the  air, — all  had  some  energies 
and  influence,  especially  the  power  of  propagating  their 
kind.  They  became  gods  to  men,  as  having  some  of  the 
attributes  of  the  Creator,  and  thus  the  doctrine  of  pan- 
theism, which  exists  to  this  day,  was  introduced.  God 
was  in  all  things,  and  all  things  were  a  part  of  God — God 
was  the  world,  and  the  world  was  God. 

The  idea  of  a  self-existent,  independent,  and  eternal  God, 
separate  from  nature,  and  the  Creator  of  matter  and  all 
things,  was  lost  from  among  men.  Though  they  professed 
to  worship  the  Creator  together  with  the  things  created, 
they  worshipped  the  creature  as  being  visible  and  near 
them  more  than  the  Creator,  and  thus  robbed  him  of  his 
glory.  Such  is  the  account  that  some  give  of  the  rise  and 
progress  of  idolatry  in  the  world.* 

But  there  are  some   who   prefer   a    difi'erent   way  of 

twenty-sixth  verse  of  the  fourth  chapter  of  Genesis — "  Then  began  men  to  call 
upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  ;"  he  says  it  should  be  rendered,  "  Then  there  was 
pollution  in  calling  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord,"  or  that  men  called  on  the 
name  of  the  Lord  in  a  corrupt  or  apostatical  manner,  which  Maimonides  ren- 
ders "  men  fell  into  grievous  errors." 
*  See  Rawlinson. 


202  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

accounting  for  its  first  beginning,  althongh  agreeing  that 
after  reaching  the  heavenly  bodies  its  progress  through 
universal  nature  is  riglitly  traced,  nntil  pantheism  and 
materialism  became  prevalent.  They  think  that  it  began 
with  some  in  the  human  form,  and  then  ascended  to  the 
heavenly  bodies.  The  great  and  good  Sir  Isaac  !Newton, 
without  discussing  the  question  of  its  antediluvian  exist- 
ence, ascribes  its  origin  among  the  postdiluvians  to  the 
worship  of  heroes  and  kings.  "  Idolatry,"  he  says,  "  be- 
gan in  Chaldea  and  Egypt ;  for  the  countries  upon  the 
Tigris  and  Nile,  being  exceedingly  fertile,  were  first  fre- 
quented, grew  first  into  kingdoms,  and  therefore  began 
to  adore  their  dead  kings  and  queens."  But  Mr.  Faber, 
with  some  other  learned  mythologists,  in  tracing  the  won- 
derful connection  and  resemblance  between  the  facts  and 
truths  recorded  by  Moses,  in  his  brief  but  most  pregnant 
history  of  man  before  the  flood,  thinks  that  he  perceives 
its  origin  and  much  of  its  progress  in  the  imitations  and 
perversions  of  God,  as  appearing  in  the  human  form  in 
paradise  and  elsewhere,  nntil  his  incarnation  in  the  per- 
son of  Christ.  There  is  something  very  interesting  in  this 
theory,  and  well  calculated  to  secure  our  partiality  and 
our  favor.  There  is  something  unnatural  in  the  supposi- 
tion that  man  should  in  one  bold  leap  have  rushed  into 
idolatry  at  once  by  a  flight  into  the  heavenly  bodies.  All 
the  histories  of  man's  errors  and  vices  favor  the  idea  of  a 
gradual  corruption  and  perversion. 

"  Nemo  fuit  unquam  repente  turpissimus." 

The  corruption  of  Christianity  itself  was  ^y  little  and 
little,  until  it  became  guilty  of  abominable  idolatry,  and 
thus  was  so  changed  as  to  be  "  another  gospel."  The  wor- 
ship of  the  true  God,  before  and  after  the  flood,  was  doubt- 
less the  foundation  of  the  false  worship,     "  The  devil  (said 


PROGRESS  OF  IDOLATRY,  203 

one  of  the  fathers)  would  never  have  built  a  chapel  for 
himself  in  any  place,  except  that  one  to  the  true  God  had 
first  stood  there."  There  is  reason  to  believe,  as  we  have 
before  said,  that  the  error  in  the  sacrifice  of  Cain  was  the 
leaving  out  of  his  system  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement 
by  omitting  the  animal  sacrifice,  and  only  ofieriug  up  the 
fruits  of  the  earth.  Thus  did  Unitarianism  arise  and  spread, 
by  omitting  the  atonement  made  by  the  second  person  of 
the  Trinity,  and  speaking  only  the  praises  of  God  the 
Father  for  all  his  other  works.  Let  us  here  see  the  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  hero-worship  being  the  first  step  in  idol- 
atry. It  is  written  in  the  Book  of  Genesis,  chap,  iii.,  verses 
6  and  8,  that  after  the  transgression  of  our  first  parents, 
when  they  had  discovered  their  nakedness  and  were 
ashamed  of  themselves,  "  they  heard  the  Voice  of  the 
Lord  God  walking  in  the  garden  in  the  cool  of  the  day, 
and  that  they  hid  themselves  from  his  presence  among  the 
trees  of  the  garden."  Here  was  "  a  voice  heard,"  and 
the  presence  of  some  one  walking  in  the  garden  fled  from. 
It  must  have  been  some  one  who  could  be  seen  and  heard, 
— somewhat  like  themselves.  All  that  follows  favors  this 
idea.  The  learned  tell  us  that  "  the  Yoice  of  the  Lord," 
as  ap})lied  to  God  in  Genesis,  answers  to  the  words  of  St. 
John  in  the  opening  of  his  gospel :  "  In  the  beginning  was 
the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was 
God."  "All  things  were  made  by  him,"  etc.  Now  we 
are  told  by  the  apostle,  "  That  no  man  hath  seen  God  at 
any  time ;  but  the  only  begotten  Son,  who  is  in  the  bosom 
of  the  Father,  he  hath  declared  him  unto  us."  In  him, 
though  in  the  human  form,  "  dwelt  all  the  fulness  of  the 
Godhead  bodily."  By  what  he  was  and  did,  he  declared 
the  Father  to  us  as  far  as  we  could  know  him.  There  first 
it  is  that  he  is  called  the  Word  or  the  Voice  of  the 
Lord,  whereby  he  speaks  and  declares  himself  to  men. 
The  Jewish  rabbis  thus  render  the  passage  in  Genesis. 


204:  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

They  make  it,"  The  Word  of  the  Lord  walking  in  the  gar- 
den," instead  of  "  the  Yoice  of  the  Lord."  They  consid- 
ered it  not  merely  as  a  sound,  but  as  a  person, — a  divine 
person, — the  same  who  was  one  day  to  appear  as  the  Mes- 
siah. Many  passages  of  scripture  are  adduced  to  show 
that  this  was  only  the  first  of  those  manifestations  of  God 
in  the  form  of  man,  who  was  to  be  the  Redeemer  of  the 
world.  Angels  are  often  spoken  of  as  being  messengers 
of  God, — ministering  spirits  to  men  ;  but  when  God  him- 
self visits  earth,  it  is  by  "  the  angel  of  his  presence,"  "  the 
messenger  of  the  covenant."  As  such,  it  is  believed  he 
held  intercourse  with  Adam,  with  Noah,  with  Moses,  and 
others.  As  such,  he  dwelt  between  the  cherubim  over 
the  ark  of  the  covenant,  and  guided  the  journey  of  the 
people  of  Israel,  and  spake  to  Moses  and  Aaron.  It  is  also 
believed  by  some  that  the  cherubim  that  guarded  the 
garden  of  Eden  were  attended  by  "  the  presence  of  the 
Lord,"  which  is  sometimes  spoken  of,  and  was  an  object 
of  worship,  though  Eden  was  a  forbidden  place  as  was 
the  "  Holy  of  Holies."  If  God  did  in  some  perceptible 
human  form  speak  to  men,  we  know  not  how  often ;  if 
sacrifices  were  ofifered  to  him  as  to  the  Seed  of  the  wo- 
man who  was  to  bruise  the  serpent's  head  and  deliver 
man ;  if  one  to  be  born  of  a  woman  was  to  be  so  great, 
and  such  a  benefactor  to  man ;  if,  as  all  agree,  this  expec- 
tation was  not  confined  to  our  first  mother,  but  continued 
even  to  the  time  of  our  Lord ;  if  Eve  herself  thus  regarded 
her  first-born,  but  was  mistaken, — how  probable  that 
others  may  have  been  mistaken,  and  that  some  of  the  most 
remarkable  among  men  may  have  been  regarded  as  having 
the  divinity  within  them — even  as  being  the  promised  Seed. 
Let  it  be  once  established  that  God  had  appeared  in  the 
human  form  in  paradise,  and  in  that  form  afterwards  had 
intercourse  with  men,  and  does  it  not  seem  most  probable 
that  some  of  the  great  and  good  men  might  become  the 


PROGRESS  OF  IDOLATRY.  205 

objects  of  the  first  veneration  and  worship,  rather  than 
the  distant  heavenly  bodies,  or  the  elements,  or  any  other 
creatures  of  God?    "Wlio  among  them  all  has  so  much 
wisdom,  so  much  knowledge,  so  much  power,  and  is  so 
dreaded  by  the  beasts  of  the  field  ?  as  it  is  written,  "  The 
fear  of  him  and  the  dread  of  him  shall  be  upon  them." 
And  now,  if  it  be  admitted  that  man  is  the  most  power- 
ful of  all  beings  upon  earth,  most  to  be  loved  and  feared  ; 
and  if  it  be  asked  which  of  all  the  ancients  would  be  the 
most  likely  to  become  the  object  of  undue  veneration, 
can  there  be  any  doubt  as  to  the  answer  ?    Must  not  the 
first  of  the  human  race,  made  at  once  in  a  state  of  matu- 
rity by  God  himself,  and  having  so  many  of  the  attributes 
of  God  in  a  measure, — one  so  favored,  the  inhabitant  of 
Eden,  the  father  of  the  whole  human  race,  having  power 
to  propagate  his   kind,  millions  proceeding  from    him, 
— be  the  very  person  ?     Who  could  compare  with  him  ? 
So  as  to  the  mother  of  all,  so  miraculously  formed,  so  per- 
fect,— who  of  all  the  daughters  of  earth  so  likely  to  be 
adored?      How   probable  that  the   first-born  of  them — 
Cain,  Abel,  and  Seth — should  be  raised  to  the  rank  of  gods ! 
And  as  to  Enoch,  translated  "  without  tasting   death," 
who  could  withhold  veneration  from  him  ?     And  then, 
when  the  human  race  became  corrupt,  let  us  think  of 
Noah,  a  great  prince,  so  holy  a  preacher  of  righteousness, 
with  whom  God  conversed  ;  one  so  wonderfully  saved  in  a 
mighty  ship,  holding  more  than  was  ever  stowed  away  in 
any  vessel  which  rode  upon  the  waters — the  second  father 
of  the  human  race — afterwards  regarded  as  Adam  renewed 
and  reappearing  by  transmigration : — and  his  sons,  too, 
the  fathers  of  mighty  nations, — who,  we  ask,  so  likely  to 
be   adored  on   earth,  to  be   translated  to  the  heavenly 
bodies?     Lotus  not,  however,  reason  or  conjecture,  but 
inquire  for  facts.     If  history  shows  that  this  was  the  case, 
surely  we  must  assent.     It  is  admitted  by  all  historians 


206  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS, 

and  mythologists  that  tlie  most  ancient  and  leading  doc- 
trine of  the  pagan  world,  except  that  of  the  Numen, — "  the 
first  great  cause  least  understood" — was,  that  the  great 
deities  were  the  same  the  world  over,  though  called  by 
different  names  according  to  the  diversity  of  tongues, 
and  with  some  modifications  of  character.  Let  us  take 
the  account  given  by  Homer  and  Hesiod,  the  great  class- 
ifiers of  the  gods.  Old  Saturn,  or  Chronus,  was  the 
same  male  divinity ;  E-hea,  or  Themis,  or  the  Earth,  the 
same  female  divinity,  with  different  names,  all  over  the 
world.  The  three  deities  most  distinguished  after  the 
flood  were  Jupiter,  Neptune,  and  Pluto.  Sir  "William 
Jones  has  established  the  identity  of  these  deities  of  Eu- 
rope, Asia,  and  Africa,  with  the  first  fathers  of  the  human 
race,  in  an  able  article  in  his  "Asiatic  Researches."  Many 
other  learned  men  have  done  the  same. 

If  the  worship  of  heroes  and  great  men,  and  sacrifices 
to  them,  be  a  perversion  of  the  worship  of  the  true  God 
in  the  human  form,  then  we  may  understand  and  accept 
the  language  of  one  of  the  fathers,  that  "  Paganism  was, 
in  the  beginning,  rather  a  heresy  from  the  patriarchal 
church,  than  a  new  system." 

Mr,  Faber  remarks,  that  '-Mankind  were  not  so  idioti- 
cal  as  to  desert  gratuitously  the  worship  of  Jehovah,  and 
in  his  place  to  adore  their  defunct  ancestors;  but  they 
were  taught  to  believe  that  in  venerating  certain  eminent 
and  remarkable  characters,  they  in  reality  worshipped  the 
successive  incarnate  manifestations  of  that  divine  Word 
who  was  acknowledged  on  all  hands  to  be  Jehovah  him- 
self," 

In  proof  of  the  deification  of  heroes,  the  fathers, — St. 
Augustine  and  others, — quote  the  celebrated  letter  of  Alex- 
ander the  Great,  when  in  Egypt.  After  conversing  with 
the  chief  priest  in  Egypt,  he  writes  to  his  mother,  as  a 
great  secret  revealed  to  him,  that  the  priest  assured  him, 


PROGRESS   OF   IDOLATRY.  207 

that  not  only  the  lesser  but  the  greater  gods  of  Egypt 
were  only  deceased  mortals. 

Cicero  also  informs  us  that  "  Death  conducted  illustrious 
men  and  women  to  heaven,  while  others  of  the  meaner 
sort  were  unable  to  extricate  themselves  from  earth.  If," 
he  says,  "  I  should  search  out  and  examine  antiquity,  it 
would  be  found  that  those  very  gods  who  are  deemed  the 
Dii  Majorum  Gentium  had  their  originals  here  below, 
and  ascended  from  hence  into  heaven." 

In  all  the  orgies  of  Samothrace,  Crete,  and  Lemnos, 
says  Mr.  Faber,  the  same  was  declared.  Hesiod  informs 
us  that  his  gods  were  originally  men,  who  flourished  in 
the  golden  age, — that  is,  immediately  after  the  creation 
and  the  delut^e. 

Sometimes  the  chief  deity  of  the  Gentiles  is  represented 
as  having  sailed  with  seven  companions  in  a  ship  during 
a  great  inundation ;  at  others  he  is  represented  as  the  sun 
himself,  sailing  in  a  great  ship. 

So  generally  were  ancient  heroes  worshipped  in  Egypt, 
that  in  only  one  place,  Thebais,  was  it  refused  to  pay  a  tax 
for  the  expenses  of  their  worship  ;  yet  one  of  their  writers 
maintained  that  "  tlieir  ancient  god,  called  Cneph,  was 
the  only  god,  and  that  no  mortal  could  be  god." 

All  the  varied  incarnations  and  manifestations  of  the 
Deity  in  the  mythologies  of  the  ancient  nations, — and  they 
are  numerous, — may  be  reasonably  traced  up  to  the  differ- 
ent manifestations  of  God,  in  the  human  form,  to  our  an- 
cestors before  and  after  the  flood. 

The  religions  of  the  ancient  nations  in  the  East  are  full 
of  what  are  called  Avaturs,  or  manifestations  of  God  to 
men  at  successive  periods.  One  of  these  represents  the 
Deity  as  treading  on  the  head  of  a  serpent,  while  the  ser- 
pent is  biting  his  heel. 

In  the  Grecian  mythology,  Jupiter,  in  the  form  of  a 
man,  converses  with  the  impious  Lycaon,  immediately 


208  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

before  the  deluge ;  while,  with  Mercury  as  his  companion, 
he  rewards  the  piety  of  Baucis  and  Philemon,  and  destroys 
an  irreligious  city  by  the  waters  of  a  lake.  This  reminds 
us  of  what  is  recorded  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  when 
Paul,  having  cured  an  impotent  man,  the  people  would 
have  worshipped  him  and  his  companion  Barnabas,  call- 
ing one  Jupiter  and  the  other  Mercurius,  saying,  "  the 
gods  have  come  down  to  us  in  the  likeness  of  men." 
We  must  not  omit  to  mention  Prometheus,  the  ancient 
king  of  so  many  nations,  who  was  at  once  a  king  and  a 
god,  and  yet  none  other  than  Noah. 

Jupiter  having  determined  to  destroy  the  human  race, 
none  of  the  other  gods  dared  interfere  except  Prometheus. 
He  brought  fire  from  heaven  to  animate  the  clay,  and  on 
this  account  was  devoted  to  severe  punishment.  yEschi- 
lus,  in  one  of  his  tragedies,  represents  him  as  bound  to  a 
rock  on  Mount  Caucasus,  in  the  most  painful  posture, 
where  he  endured  the  most  bitter  mockery,  and  was  thus 
taunted :  "  Now  let  us  see  thee  bestow  high  gifts  of  the 
gods  on  wretched  mortals!  Can  these  mortals  liberate 
thee  from  thy  present  suffering?"  Nor  must  we  forget 
another  most  important  feature  in  this  doctrine  of  the  in- 
carnation, viz :  that  the  Deity,  thus  becoming  human,  is 
born  of  a  woman,  generally  of  a  virgin.  Not  more  clearly 
is  this  stated  in  scripture  than  it  is  seen  in  some  of  the 
pagan  mythologies. 

Now  let  us  see  how  the  worship  of  heroes  became  con- 
nected with  that  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  etc.  Sancho- 
niathon,  the  Phoenician  historian,  in  speaking  of  postdi- 
luvian idolatry,  says  that  Noah,  or  Chryson,  was  the  first 
deified  mortal,  and  the  several  members  of  his  family, 
after  their  deaths,  were  raised  to  the  rank  of  gods,  in  con- 
nection with  the  heavenly  bodies. 

Among  the  Hindoos,  the  Richis,  who  were  preserved 


PKOGRESS  OF  IDOLATRY.  209 

in  the  ark,  afterwards  animated  the  seven  stai*s  of  the 
Great  Bear,  and  their  wives  those  of  the  Pleiades. 

In  Chaldea  it  was  believed  that  the  great  Father  had 
made  seven  erratic  living  animals,  which  were  the  seven 
worlds  or  planets. 

The  earliest  king  of  Egypt  was  called  Ilelius,  or  the 
Snn  ;  bnt  the  worship  of  the  hero  preceded  that  of  the 
heavenly  body  into  which  he  ascended.  Thus,  Julius 
Csesar  \vas  the  cause  of  the  star  being  worshipped,  into 
M'hich  he  was  supposed  to  ascend.  It  was  indeed  the  pre- 
vailing idea,  among  tlie  ancient  philosophers  and  poets, 
that  the  stars  were  inhabited,  and  had  souls.  Some  of  the 
Jewish  rabbis  believed  it.  Philo,  the  Jew,  calls  them  de- 
vout images  ;  incorruptible,  immortal  souls.  Maimonides 
says  they  are  all  animated,  having  life,  knowledge,  and 
understanding.  Perhaps  in  this  way  he  construed  a  fig- 
urative passage  in  Job,  which  speaks  of  the  "  morning  stars 
singing  together,  and  all  the  sons  of  God  shouting  for  joy." 
The  adoration  of  the  heavenly  bodies  has  ever  been  the 
most  plausible,  and  the  most  natural  and  innocent  of  the 
pagan  idolatries  ;  therefore  it  is  that  the  scriptures  are  so 
frequent  and  so  strong  in  warning  against  being  led  into 
it.  God  calls  himself  "  the  Sun,"  and,  in  order  to  show  his 
undivided  authority,  did,  on  certain  occasions,  make  both 
sun  and  moon  to  stop  in  their  accustomed  courses.  Nor 
could  they  move  at  all  but  by  his  mighty  power  and  at 
his  bidding.  So  noble  are  all  the  luminaries  of  heaven  ; 
so  probable  does  it  seem  that  they  are  filled  with  inhabi- 
tants to  praise  him  that  made  them  and  who  delights  to 
fill  universal  space  with  living  beings,  that  even  now  there 
are  those  among  Christians  who,  on  beholding  the  vault  of 
heaven  covered  with  stars,  say,  "  May  not  these  be  some  of 
the  many  mansions  of  which  our  Saviour  speaks,  and 
may  not  one  of  tliem  be  the  future  habitation  of  the  re- 
deemed souls  and  the  glorified  bodies  of  his  renewed 
14 


210  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

ones  ? "  And  llioiigli  none  can  establish  it,  who  can  gain- 
say it?  When  Enoch  and  Ehjah  were  taken  up  into 
heaven ;  when  the  Son  of  God,  after  visiting  earth 
so  often  in  the  human  form,  disappeared,  perhaps  as 
from  Mount  Olivet,  and  soared  towards  heaven,  how 
natural  the  thought  that  some  of  the  heavenly  bodies 
might  be  his  habitation  ;  and  then  how  easy  the  transition 
to  the  thought  that  when  the  great  ones  of  earth  died  their 
souls  might  ascend  also  !  Tlie  kings  and  warriors  of  earth, 
out  of  ambition  and  vainglory  ;  and  their  flattering  syco- 
phants, out  of  their  folly  and  self-interest,  did  everything 
in  their  power  to  keep  up  this  delusion.  The  former 
claimed  to  be  descended  from  some  god,  and  then  declared 
their  ascent  to  the  stars  after  their  death.'"'  Thus  did  the 
evil  one,  who  falsely  promised  to  our  first  parents  that 
they  should  be  as  gods  if  they  would  obey  him,  continue 
to  carry  on  the  work  as  the  father  of  lies,  and  sought  to 
persuade  men  that  numbers  of  the  human  race  had  become 
gods  and  M'^ere  worthy  of  their  worship.  The  falsehood 
has  been  perpetuated  upon  earth,  not  only  among  the 
heathen  but  in  some  measure  among  Christians,  as  may 

*  Some  notice  of  astrology  may  here  be  introduced.  "Mythology  in  one  age," 
says  Mr.  Faber,  "  becomes  romance  in  the  next,  and  finally  is  degraded  into 
nursery  talcs  in  the  third.  Hence  arose  the  fancies  of  judicial  astrology,  in 
which  the  stars,  according  to  their  various  positions  and  combinations,  at  the 
birth  of  an  individual,  were  thought  subsequently  to  influence  the  whole  of  his 
life  ;"  and  there  were  those  who  professed  to  foretell  all  the  events  of  a  man's 
life,  from  observing  the  stars  at  his  nativity.  "  The  heavenly  bodies,  in  their 
first  condition,  were  imagined  to  be  living  creatures,  possessing  sensation  but 
devoid  of  intelligence.  Next,  however,  they  became  a  class  of  living  creatures, 
possessing  intelligence  as  well  as  sensation."  This,  Mr.  Faber  thinks,  originated 
from  the  impression  that  the  hero-gods  tirst  hovered  over  the  earth  as  guardians 
of  their  descendants  ;  then  were  translated  to  the  stars,  and  animated  them; 
Some  have  maintained  that  the  scriptures  give  countenance  to  this  idea,  as  in 
the  song  of  Deborah  at  the  discomfiture  of  Sisera. — (Judges  v.)  "  From  the 
heavens  they  fought.  The  stars  from  their  lofty  places  (or  in  their  courses) 
fought  against  Sisera,"  and  he  was  discomfited.  Mr.  Faber  thinks  that 
the  prophetess,  in  a  fine  strain  of  irony,  "  is  taunting  the  kings  of  Canaan  with 
consulting  the  stars  and  believing  that  they  fought  with  them  !  " 


PROGRESS  OF  IDOLATRY.  211 

be  seen  in  the  adoration  of  the  saints  and  of  the  mother  of 
our  Lord.  It  is  difficult  to  divest  our  own  sacred  poetry 
of  the  language  of  idolatry,  as  for  instance  in  the  beauti- 
ful hymn — 

"  Star  of  the  East,  the  horizon  adorning, 
Dawn  on  our  darkness,"  etc.,  etc. 

And  in  our  great  national  song — 

"Hail,  Columbia,  happy  land! 
Hail,  ye  heroes,  heaven-born  band  !  " 

How  few,  in  repeating  and  singing  these  lines,  consider 
that  they  are  using  the  language  of  paganism ! 

I  conclude  on  this  subject  by  stating  a  remarkable  cir- 
cumstance which  takes  place  in  some  of  the  Eastern  sacri- 
fices, and  which  favors  the  idea  that  the  origin  of  idolatry 
may  be  traced  to  the  appearance  of  God  himself  in  the 
human  form,  and  of  the  sacrifice  of  "  the  Lamb  slain  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world."  The  circumstance  is  this : 
if  the  victim  slain  be  in  the  human  form  it  is  first  wor- 
shipped. In  the  "Asiatic  Researches,"  vol.  v.,  we  have 
an  account  of  the  ceremony  and  the  prayer.  The  victim 
is  thus  addressed :  "  O  best  of  men  !  O  most  auspicious !  O 
thou  who  art  an  assemblage  of  all  the  deities,  and  most 
exquisite !  bestow  thy  protection  on  me,  and  part  with  thine 
organs  of  life,  doing  an  act  of  benevolence."  Thus  it  is 
written,  "  Let  the  sacrificer  worship  the  victim."  Brah- 
ma and  all  the  deities  are  supposed  to  assemble  in  the 
victim.  The  sacrificer  must  say,  "  Mysterious  praise  be  to 
this  victim."  Messrs.  Faber,  Bryant,  and  others  adduce 
the  above  in  favor  of  the  view  they  take  of  this  subject. 

As  to  the  rise  and  progress  of  idolatry,  when  the  philos- 
ophers undertook  the  management  of  religion  tliey  turned 
the  persons  of  heroes  or  ancients  into  attributes  of  God  or 
nature  ;  and  wherever  power  or  force  was  found,  there  they 


212  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  CLASSICS. 

found  the  Deity.  The  poets  again  took  the  abstractions  of 
the  philosophers  and  converted  them  into  idle  tales  or  un- 
intelligible allegories.  These  two  things  have  perplexed 
the  question  of  the  origin  of  idolatry,  leading  some  to  as- 
cribe it  to  the  brains  and  fancies  of  philosophers  and  poets 
rather  than  to  some  early  facts  in  the  history  of  God's 
dealings  with  man,  which  have  been  perverted  into  fable. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

ON     THE     DELUGE. PART     FIRST. 

According  to  our  plan,  we  will  first  give  tlie  account 
of  it  as  recorded  by  Moses. 

In  tlie  sixth  chapter  of  Genesis  it  is  written :  "And 
God  saw  that  the  wickedness  of  man  was  great  upon  the 
earth,  and  that  every  imagination  of  the  thoughts  of  his 
heart  was  only  evil  continually."  "And  it  repented  the 
Lord  that  he  had  made  man  on  the  earth,  and  it  grieved 
him  at  his  heart."  "  But  IS'oali  found  grace  in  the  eyes  of 
the  Lord  ;"  for  "  !Noah  was  a  just  man,  and  walked  with 
God."  "And  God  said  unto  Noah,  The  end  of  all  flesh 
is  come  before  me,  for  the  earth  is  filled  with  violence 
through  them  ;   and  I  will  destroy  them  with  the  earth." 

lie  then  bids  him  build  an  ark,  or  ship,  after  the  pat- 
tern given  him  by  the  Lord,  into  which  he  and  his  wife, 
and  his  sons  and  their  wives  with  them,  must  enter, 
taking  with  them  pairs  of  all  fowls  and  beasts  which 
were  unclean,  and  of  the  clean  by  sevens,  and  also  sufii- 
cient  food  for  all.  This  being  done  according  to  the 
divine  command,  the  clouds  from  above  opened  their  win- 
dows, and  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  were  broken 
up,  and  the  waters  which  came  forth  prevailed  and  cov- 
ered the  earth  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  days.  In  due 
time  God  made  a  wind  to  pass  over  the  earth,  and  the 
waters  were  assuaged.  In  the  seventh  month  the  ark 
rested  upon  the  mountains  of  Ararat.  At  the  end  of  one 
year  and  ten  days  Koah  and  his  family  descended  from 


214  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

tlie  ark,  with,  all  that  was  in  it.  And  he  built  an  altar  to 
the  Lord,  and  offered  sacrifices. 

Then  began  anew  the  race  of  man,  and  of  the  other 
animals  made  for  his  use,  with  a  promise  from  God  that 
he  would  never  again  thus  destroy  the  earth. 

Of  such  a  tremendous  dispensation  as  this,  if  it  did 
really  occur,  all  must  admit  that  the  most  undoubted 
proofs  would  be  furnished,  so  long  as  the  earth  shall  re- 
main to  exhibit  the  effects  of  so  tremendous  a  convul- 
sion, and  so  long  as  man  is  capable  of  transmitting,  from 
generation  to  generation,  any  knowledge  of  what  has  hap- 
pened on  earth.  This  surely,  above  all  things,  is  that 
event  of  which  all  nations,  in  all  ages  and  countries, 
must  have  some  tradition. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  adduce  the  evidences  which 
the  geologist  finds  in  those  numerous  fossil  remains  of 
animals  and  plants  and  trees  of  all  kinds,  and  of  every 
size,  which  are  on  and  below  the  surface  of  the  earth,  aj^id 
which  some  mighty  flow  of  waters  only  could  have  placed 
there.  Though  we  may  have  cause  to  allude  to  such  in 
the  progress  of  our  work,  yet  we  must  leave  the  details 
of  the  argument  and  the  specification  of  facts  to  the  geolo- 
gist, only  referring  our  readers  to  some  of  the  numerous 
works  of  that  class  of  defenders  of  our  holy  religion.  The 
plan  of  our  work  leads  us  to  adduce,  in  behalf  of  the 
deluge,  some  of  those  numerous  corroborations  of  scrip- 
ture which  abound  in  the  ancient  histories,  poems,  and 
mythological  traditions. 

Before  we  begin  with  our  quotations,  it  is  proper  that 
we  should  repeat  what  has  already  been  stated,  and  what 
may  require  to  be  incorporated  again  into  other  state- 
ments, viz.,  that  the  deluge  was  not  considered  by  many 
ancient  nations  as  the  first  great  catastrophe  which  hap- 
pened to  our  earth. 

The  doctrine  of  a  succession  of  worlds,  by  destruction 


ON  THE   DELUGE.  215 

and  reproduction,  pervades  many  of  tlie  pagan  mytliolo- 
gies,  especially  tliose  of  the  East.  Fire  and  water  are 
the  elements  supposed  to  be  nsed  by  some  god,  or  gods, 
in  these  destructions  and  reproductions.  I  mention  this 
at  once,  because  you  will  lind  the  fact  so  often  inter- 
mingled with  the  testimonies  about  to  be  introduced,  and 
they  will  thus  be  the  better  understood.  These  traditions 
favor  the  theory  of  those  who  think  that  before  or  dm-ing 
the  period  of  that  chaos  which  preceded  the  present  or- 
ganization of  the  earth  and  heavens,  and  the  formation  of 
man,  and  of  animals  for  the  use  of  man,  there  may  have 
been  revolutions  in  the  state  of  the  earth,  and  even  ani- 
mals suited  to  those  revolutions,  though  not  such  as  now 
exist  and  have  existed  since  man  was  formed.  Certain 
it  is,  however,  that  Moses  has  given  us  no  hint  of  any 
such  revolutions,  or  such  races  of  animals,  and  therefore 
we  confine  ourselves  to  his  record. 

TESTIMONIES    OF    DIFFEEENT     NATIONS     TO    THE     FACT    OF    A 

DELUGE. 

The  great  deity  of  the  Hindoos  is  Brahm,  who  is  said 
to  appear  at  the  beginning  of  every  new  world.  He  trip- 
licated himself  into  three  deities,  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and 
Siva,  who  are  believed  to  be,  first,  Adam  and  his  three 
sons,  Cain,  Abel,  and  Seth,  the  only  ones  named  by 
Moses  ;  and  next,  Noah  and  his  three  sons,  Shem,  Ham, 
and  Japheth,  the  only  ones  mentioned,  and  who,  as  we 
shall  hereafter  see,  were  the  chief  deities  of  the  heathen 
world,  except  so  far  as  they  believed  in  one  invisible 
su]3reme  Numen,  or  god. 

The  Egyptians  held  the  same  opinion  as  to  a  succession  of 
worlds.  In  their  most  ancient  books — those  ascribed,  whe- 
ther rightfully  or  not,  to  Hermes — the  doctrine  is  taught 
that  "  nothing  perishes  ;  "  that  "  death  is  only  a  change 
or  translation  of  things ;  "  that  "  the  Supreme  Being,  be- 


216  THE   BIBLE  AND   THE    CLASSICS. 

holding  the  manners  of  men  from  time  to  time,  either  washes 
away  with  water  or  consumes  witli  fire  the  malignity  of  the 
world,  and  then  restores  it  again  to  its  ancient  form." 
Such  was  the  account  given  to  Solon  by  an  Egyptian 
priest.  Origen,  the  learned  father,  gives  the  same  ac- 
count of  their  system,  saying,  that  "According  to  their 
speculations  the  world  was  never  produced,  but  existed 
from  all  eternity."  Of  course,  this  god  of  the  Egyptians 
was  not  our  God  who  "  made  the  heavens  and  the  earth," 
even  though  he  may  have  permitted  it  to  be  in  a  state  of 
chaos,  or  without  form,  and  void,  or  in  some  other  form 
than  its  present  one,  for  a  certain  time.  This  Egyptian 
god  could  only  have  been  the  soul  or  mind  of  tlie  world ; 
its  regulator,  not  its  maker. 

The  Chinese  and  Burmans  hold  opinions  in  unison  with 
the  foregoing. 

The  Chaldeans  or  Babylonians,  according  to  their  histO' 
rian,  Berosus,  held  as  follows :  In  the  time  of  Zizuthrus, 
(the  same  with  Noah,)  and  who  like  Noah  was  the  ninth  in 
descent  from  the  first  man,  happened  the  great  deluge 
whose  histor}^  is  tlius  given  :  "  The  god  Chronus  appeared 
to  him  in  a  vision,  and  gave  him  notice  that  on  the  fif* 
teentli  day  of  the  month  Desius,  there  would  be  a  flood 
by  which  all  mankind  would  be  destroyed.  After  direct- 
ing him  to  write  a  history  of  the  past  and  put  it  in  some 
place  of  security,  he  bids  liini  build  a  vessel,  and  take  with 
him  into  it  his  friends  and  relations,  and  to  trust  himself 
fearlessly  to  the  deep.  The  command  was  obeyed,  and 
Zizuthrus  takes  with  him  into  liis  vessel  all  kinds  of  ani- 
mals. Tlie  vessel  was  five  stadia  in  length,  and  two  in 
breadth.  After  the  flood  had  covered  the  earth  and  begun 
to  abate,  he  sent  forth  some  birds,  who  came  back  twice, 
having  their  feet  tinged  with  mud  ;  but  sending  them  a 
third  time,  they  returned  no  more.  He  now  opened  the 
vessel,  and  found  that  it  was  driven  to  the  side  of  a  moun- 


ON  THE   DELUGE.  217 

tain.  Descending  from  it  with  his  family,  he  first  paid 
adoration  to  the  earth,  and  then  buikled  an  altar  and  offered 
sacrifices  to  the  gods.  The  remainder  of  his  friends,  after 
"waiting  for  some  time  in  the  ship,  came  out  in  search  of 
them  but  could  not  find  them  ;  but  they  heard  the  voice  of 
Zizuthrus  in  the  air,  who  admonished  them  to  pay  due 
regard  to  the  gods,  saying  that  he,  his  wife,  children,  and 
pilot  had  all  been  exalted  to  the  rank  of  gods."  Berosus 
remarks  that  the  remains  of  the  vessel  were  to  be  seen  in 
his  time,  on  one  of  the  mountains  of  Armenia,  and  that 
people  were  wont  to  scrape  the  bitumen  with  which  it 
had  been  coated,  to  use  as  charms.  Whatever  may  be 
thought  of  this  last  affirmation,  who  will  deny  the  proba- 
bility that  the  remains  of  such  a  vessel,  which  for  size  and 
excellency  has  perhaps  never  been  surpassed  if  equalled, 
should  for  centuries  be  found  on  that  high  and  healthy 
mountain-top  ? 

THE  GRECLOr  AND  SYRIAJf  ACCOUNT,  AS  GIVEN  BY  LUCIAN. 

"  This  generation  of  men  was  not  the  first,  for  all  of  them 
perished ;  but  these  are  from  a  second  race,  which  all  in- 
creased from  a  single  person,  named  Deucalion,  to  its  pres- 
ent multitude."  Concerning  these  men,  they  relate,  that 
being  of  a  ferocious  and  violent  temper,  they  were  guilty 
of  every  sort  of  lawlessness ;  wherefore  a  great  calamity 
befell  them.  The  earth  suddenly  poured  forth  a  large  body 
of  water ;  heavy  torrents  of  rain  descended ;  the  rivers 
overflowed  their  banks ;  the  sea  rose  above  its  ordinary 
level,  until  the  whole  world  was  inundated,  and  all  that 
were  in  it  perished.  In  the  midst  of  the  general  destruc- 
tion, Deucalion  alone  was  left  to  another  generation  on 
account  of  his  extraordinar}^  wisdom  and  piety.  His  pres- 
ervation was  thus  effected.  He  caused  his  sons  and  their 
wives  to  enter  into  a  large  ark  which  he  had  provided,  and 
afterwards  went  into  it  himself;  but  while  he  was  embark- 


218  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

iiig,  swine  and  horses  and  lions  and  serpents  and  all  other 
animals  came  to  him  in  pairs.  These  he  took  in  with  him, 
and  they  injured  him  not ;  bnt  on  the  contrary,  the  great- 
est harmony  subsisted  between  them,  through  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Deity,  Thus  they  sailed  together  in  one  ark, 
as  long  as  the  waters  prevailed.  The  Syrians  (says  Lucian) 
add  to  this  a  tradition  of  the  waters  being  swallowed  up 
by  a  large  chasm  in  their  country,  and  say  that  Deucalion 
himself  had  a  temple  built  on  it,  and  some  religious  cere- 
monies established  annually  to  commemorate  their  deliv- 
erance. Nothing  is  here  said  about  the  dove,  but  Plutarch 
informs  us  that  mythologists  declare  that  Deucalion  sent  a 
dove  out  of  the  ark,  which  when  it  returned  to  him  showed 
that  the  storm  was  not  abated  ;  but  when  he  saw  it  no 
more,  he  concluded  that  the  sky  was  become  serene 
again. 

THE   HINDOO   TESTIMONY. 

The  learned  Sir  "William  Jones  translated  a  long  tradi- 
tion from  one  of  the  ancient  books  of  India,  in  which,  not- 
withstanding all  the  oriental  romance  and  figure,  the  main 
facts  of  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  deluge  are  substantiated. 

Brahma,  one  of  the  three  sons  of  Bralim,  is  represented 
as  lying  in  a  profound  sleep  for  a  whole  night, — that  is,  a 
year,  according  to  the  Hindoo  reckoning,  during  which 
the  earth  was  destroyed  by  a  deluge. 

Tlie  traditions  of  the  Druids  in  Europe,  who  derived 
their  religion  from  the  East,  resembles  the  Hindoo  tradi- 
tion. "Tlie  profligacy  of  mankind  had  provoked  the 
Supreme  to  send  a  pestilential  wind  upon  the  earth.  A 
pure  poison  descended,  and  every  blast  was  death.  At 
this  time  the  patriarch,  distinguished  for  his  integrity, 
was  shut  up  with  seven  select  companions  in  a  floating 
island,  or  enclosure,  with  a  strong  door.  Here  the  just 
ones  wxre  safe  from  injury.     Presently  a  tempest  of  fire 


ON   THE   DELUGE.  219 

arose,  which  split  the  earth  asunder  to  the  great  deep. 
The  lake  llllon  burst  its  bounds.  The  waves  of  the  sea 
lifted  themselves  on  high  round  the  borders  of  Britain  ; 
the  rain  poured  doAvn  from  heaven,  and  the  waters  cover- 
ed the  earth  ;  but  that  water  was  intended  as  a  lustration 
to  purify  the  polluted  globe,  to  render  it  meet  for  the  re- 
newal of  life,  to  wash  away  the  contagion  of  its  former 
inhabitants  into  the  chasms  of  the  abyss.  The  flood,  which 
swept  away  from  the  earth  the  expiring  remains  of  the 
patriarch's  contemporaries,  raised  his  vessel  or  enclosure 
on  high  from  the  ground,  bore  it  safe  upon  the  summit  of 
the  waves,  and  proved  to  him  and  his  associates  the 
water  of  life  and  renovation." 

Such,  according  to  Davies  and  Faber,  are  the  Druidical 
traditions  concerning  the  deluge. 

THE   CHINESE   TRADITIONS    OF   THE   DELUGE. 

"  I  may  assure  you,"  says  Sir  William  Jones,  in  one  of 
his  addresses  to  the  Asiatic  Society,  "  that  the  Chinese, 
like  the  Hindoos,  believe  this  earth  to  have  been  wholly 
covered  with  water,  which,  in  works  of  undisj)uted  author- 
ity, they  describe  as  flowing  abundantly,  then  subdivid- 
ing, and  separating  the  higher  from  the  lower  age  of 
mankind  ;  and  that  the  division  of  time,  from  which  their 
poetical  history  begins,  just  preceded  the  appearance  of 
Fohi  on  the  mountains  of  China."  There  can  be  no' 
doubt  that  Fohi  was  none  other  than  Noah,  Deucalion,. 
Zizuthius,  and  others,  who  by  diflerent  names  rej^resented 
the  patriarch  of  the  deluge. 

AMERICAN   TRADITIONS    OF   THE   FLOOD. 

"  At  the  time  of  the  conquest  of  America,"  says  Mr.. 
Faber,  quoting  from  Howard,  Purchas,  and  Herera,  "  the 
inhabitants  of  Michoaca,  Thascala,  and  Achajagna  still 


220  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

preserved  a  tradition  tliat  the  world  was  once  overwlielm- 
ed  with  water  in  consequence  of  tlie  prevailing  wicked- 
ness of  the  age.  The  Michoacans  believed  that  a  priest 
called  Tespi  was  preserved,  along  with  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren, in  a  great  box  of  wood,  in  which  also  he  had  col- 
lected a  variety  of  animals,  and  excellent  seed  of  all  kinds. 
After  the  waters  had  retreated,  be  sent  out  a  bird  called 
anrja,  which  did  not  return ;  he  then  sent  out  several 
others  which  did  not  return.  Last  of  all  he  sent  out  a 
bird  much  smaller  than  the  others,  which  the  natives 
esteemed  most.  This  soon  returned  again,  with  a  branch 
of  a  tree  in  its  mouth." 

The  Peruvians,  we  are  informed  by  Gomara,  believed 
in  a  similar  manner  that  it  once  rained  so  violently  as  to 
inundate  all  the  lower  parts  of  the  country,  in  consequence 
of  which  a  universal  destruction  of  the  human  race  took 
place,  a  few  persons  excepted,  who  escaped  in  caves  situ- 
ated on  the  tops  of  the  mountains.  In  place  of  doves 
they  substituted  dogs,  which  they  sent  out  to  explore  the 
country.  They  also  reckoned  the  number  of  persons  saved 
as  seven.  Such  is  the  case  with  a  number  of  the  ancient 
traditions,  for  a  reason  hereafter  to  be  mentioned.  The 
Peruvian  seven  are  doubtless  the  same  with  the  seven 
Cabiri,  the  seven  Titans,  the  seven  Hindoo  Rishis,  the 
seven  Arkite,  companions  of  the  British  Arthur. 

The  Brazilians  also  had  their  account  of  a  general  flood. 
When  that  event  took  place,  all  mankind  perished,  one 
person  only  and  his  sister  excepted,  who  escaped  on  a 
janipater.  From  this  pair  the  Brazilians  deduce  their 
origin.  Lerius  informs  us  that  he  was  present  at  one  of 
their  assemblies,  where  in  a  solemn  chorus  they  chanted 
a  kind  of  requiem  to  their  ancestors.  In  the  course  of 
the  song  they  did  not  fail  to  notice  the  catastrophe  of  the 
deluge,  in  which  the  whole  world  perished  excej)t  some 
of  their  progenitors,  who  escaped  by  climbing  big  trees. 


ON   THE   DELUGE.  221 

Tlie  inhabitants  of  Cuba  have  very  special  traditions 
concerning  it.  They  say,  "An  old  man,  fearing  the  deluge, 
built  a  great  ship,  and  went  into  it  with  his  family  and 
an  abundance  of  animals.  After  he  had  been  shut  up 
many  days  he  sent  out  a  crow,  which  did  not  return,  but 
stayed  to  feed  on  dead  bodies ;  at  length,  however,  it 
came  back  with  a  green  branch  in  its  mouth." 

They  related,  moreover,  that  this  ancient  man  lay  un- 
covered in  consequence  of  intoxication,  and  that  one  of 
his  sons  scoffed  at  him  while  in  that  state ;  but  the  others 
spread  their  garments  over  him.  They  added,  that  they 
themselves  were  descended  from  the  former  son,  hence 
they  had  no  garments  to  cover  their  nakedness ;  and  they 
argued  that  the  Si3aniards  had  sprung  from  another  son, 
that  is,  from  one  of  those  who  had  spread  their  garments 
over  their  father,  because  they  had  both  clothes  and 
horses. 

Herera  asserts  that  this  narrative  was  communicated  by 
a  Cuban,  more  than  seventy  years  of  age,  to  Gabriel  de 
Cabrera,  who  in  a  quarrel  had  called  him  a  dog  :  Where- 
fore he  asked,  "  Dost  thou  abuse  me,  since  we  are  breth- 
ren ?  Do  we  not  spring  from  the  two  sons  of  him  who  built 
the  great  ship  to  save  himself  from  the  waters  ?  "  Numer- 
ous are  the  other  testimonies  to  the  same  effect,  from  the 
same  and  different  nations,  but  the  above  ought  surely  to 
suffice  to  satisfy  all  who  are  not  steeled  against  all  evi- 
dence in  favor  of  a  deluge. 

Some  of  its  opponents  object  that  these  traditions  relate 
only  to  some  partial  overflow  of  water  which  has  affected 
certain  localities  of  the  earth,  and  whose  occurrence  is 
not  denied.  Others  object  to  the  theory  of  a  general  or 
universal  deluge,  that  many  of  the  fossils  and  skeletons 
and  coal  mines  which  once  were  considered  proofs  of  a 
deluge,  are  now  ascribed  to  revolutions  and  convulsions 
of  a  much  earlier  date  than  the  deluge,  and  are  believed 


222  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

to  be  the  remains  of  animals  and  forests  wliicli  existed 
before  tlie  period  of  Adam's  formation  and  the  establish- 
ment of  the  earth  in  its  present  condition.  Others  main- 
tain that  the  Mosaic  account  is  fully  established  without 
supposing  that  the  whole  of  our  globe  was  covered  by  the 
flood ;  that  it  is  sufhcient  to  suppose  that  the  flood  de- 
stroyed the  wliole  human  race,  with  the  exception  of 
Noah  and  his  family ;  that  it  is  not  certainly  known 
whether  the  whole  earth  was  covered  with  inhabitants 
before  the  flood ;  whether  the  continent  of  America,  or 
large  portions  of  it,  may  not  have  been  brought  to  the 
surface  by  the  operation  of  the  flood,  and  some  parts  of 
the  other  hemis])here  have  been  destitute  of  inhabitants. 
They  maintain  tliat  perhaps  only  large  portions  of  Eu- 
rope, Asia,  and  Africa  were  settled  before  the  flood,  and 
that  the  deluge  may  only  have  covered  these  continents, 
or  large  portions  of  the  same,  destroying  all  the  men  and 
other  animals  except  those  in  the  ark.  However  we  may 
prefer  the  more  literal  understanding  of  the  language  of 
Moses,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  more  universal  deluge,  we 
must  not  condemn  as  unbelievers  and  unsound  those  who 
adopt  a  more  restricted  view  of  the  subject.  The  Eev. 
Mr.  Ilarcourt,  son  of  the  late  Archbishop  of  York,  who 
has  written  two  learned  octavos  on  the  deluge,  advocates 
the  most  literal  understanding  of  the  language  of  scrij)- 
ture  as  to  its  universality;  and  yet,  he  wishes  to  be  under- 
stood as  not  denying  that  there  are  things  which  geologists 
have  discovered  in  the  bosom  of  the  earth,  which,  though 
once  ascribed  to  the  deluge,  must  be  ascribed  to  a  pre- 
vious era  and  dispensation,  though  there  are  a  sufficient 
number  of  phenomena  yet  belonging  to  the  surface  and 
the  first  strata  beneath,  which  can  only  be  ascribed  to  the 
destruction  by  the  deluge.  Mr.  Faber,  also,  though  hold- 
ing decided  views  as  to  a  general  deluge  according  to  the 
literal  Mosaic  record,  has,  in  his  great  work  on  the  "Pa- 


ON  THE   DELUGE.  223 

gan  Mythology,"  presented  those  traditions  and  facts  in 
relation  to  partial  deluges  which  have  encouraged  the 
supposition  that  the  Mosaic  record  related  to  the  most  ex- 
tensive of  them,  and  to  one  in  which  God's  anger  at  the 
sins  of  men  was  signally  displayed,  even  to  the  total  de- 
struction of  the  antediluvian  race,  except  K"oah  and  his 
family.  I  conclude  the  present  chapter  by  an  account  of 
some  of  these  traditions. 

From  an  examination  of  these  documents,  and  the  locali- 
ties themselves,  Mr.  Faber  thinks  it  not  impossible  that 
the  Euxine  sea,  once  a  lake,  may  have  burst  its  bounds, 
and  poured  its  redundant  waters  through  the  cleft  of  the 
Bosphorus ;  nor  impossible  that  the  Mediterranean  sea 
may,  in  a  similar  manner,  perhaps  in  the  way  of  cause 
and  effect,  have  broken  for  itself  a  passage  into  the  ocean, 
thus  discharging  the  streams  which  it  had  previously  re- 
ceived from  the  Euxine. 

TLATO'S    ACCOUNT    OF   THE   ISLAND    OF   ATLANTIS. 

According  to  Plato,  when  Solon  was  in  Egypt  a  learned 
priest  of  the  country  informed  him  that  there  was  once, 
at  the  entrance  of  the  main  ocean,  beyond  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules  (Gibraltar),  an  island  larger  than  all  Asia  and 
Africa,  of  which  traditions  very  like  those  relating  to 
l^oah  and  the  flood  existed  ;  but  that  the  Mediterranean 
sea,  at  that  time  a  large  lake  without  any  inlet  into  the 
ocean,  was  swelled  above  its  usual  level  by  an  extraordi- 
nary influx  of  the  great  rivers  which  disembogue  themselves 
into  it.  Tlie  weight  of  the  waters,  assisted  by  an  earth- 
quake, burst  through  the  isthmus  which  there  connected 
Europe  and  Africa,  and  by  their  sudden  escape  over- 
whelmed extensive  tracts  of  land.  Mr.  Faber  rather 
gives  a  mythological  interpretation  of  this.  The  destruc- 
tion of  cities  and  the  submei'ging  of  islands  were  some- 


224  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

times  regarded  as  deluges,  and  perhaps  identified  with  the 
great  dehige.  That  islands  have  sunk  in  the  ocean,  is 
matter  of  history  which  is  not  questioned.  As  to  the  de- 
struction of  cities,  it  is  sufficient  to  mention  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah,  nearly  twenty  miles  apart,  (one  at  the  head, 
the  other  at  the  foot  of  the  Dead  Sea,)  which  were  de- 
stroyed by  fire  and  sunk  in  a  lake.  It  is  not  wonderful 
that  as  Abraham  was  the  tenth  from  I^oah,  and  Noah  was 
the  tenth  from  Adam,  that  Lot  and  his  daughters  should 
have  feared  another  deluge,  one  of  fire  mingled  with 
water.  It  is  not  wonderful  that  it  should  afterwards  have 
been  considered  a  deluge.  Yery  numerous  are  the  tradi- 
tions of  floods, — as  in  that  of  Samothrace,  and  those  in 
Cashmere,  a  country  very  liable  to  overflowings, — which 
have  been  identified  with  the  great  flood  of  Koali.  We 
are  bold  to  affirm  that  not  only  scripture,  but  the  traditions 
of  the  ancients,  distinguish  the  latter  from  all  others,  so  as 
to  make  it  one  of  the  most  striking  proofe  of  the  truth  of 
the  sacred  narrative. 


CHAPTER  XY. 

ON  THE  DELUGE. PART  SECOND. COMMEMORATIONS  AND  SYM- 
BOLS OF  THE  DELUGE,  THE  ARK,  AND  MOUNT  ARARAT. 

TVe  repeat  the  remark,  tliat  if  sucli  an  overflowing  of 
the  earth  as  that  recorded  by  Moses,  with  its  most  proba- 
ble eflfects  on  and  beneath  the  surface,  did  occur,  suffi- 
cient evidences  of  it  must  be  found  in  and  upon  the  earth 
itself ;  while  the  traditions  of  nations  would  in  all  time 
bear  witness  to  it. 

We  further  remark,  that  so  memorable  an  event,  be- 
yond any  other  whatever,  would  also  be  inscribed  on  the 
memory  of  the  human  race  by  monuments  and  usages 
and  stated  celebrations,  such  as  man  has  been  ever  prone 
to  adopt  in  regard  to  all  things  in  which  he  was  deep- 
ly interested,  but  which  were  likely  to  be  forgotten ; 
wherefore,  we  find  the  ancient  world  filled  with  sacred 
places,  mountains,  caverns,  temples,  celebrations,  referring 
to  this  event,  while  historians  assure  us  of  their  design. 

But  let  us,  according  to  our  plan,  first  see  what  the 
most  ancient  of  all  books,  the  Bible,  has  to  say  on  this 
branch  of  the  subject.  We  have  shown,  in  a  former 
chapter,  the  great  probability  that  the  garden  of  Eden 
and  Mount  Ararat,  if  not  identical  as  to  locality,  were 
very  near  to  each  other  in  the  mountains  of  Armenia, 
where  the  great  rivers  mentioned  by  Moses  took  their 
rise. 

15 


226  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

According  to  some  traditions,  the  ark  rested  on  tlie 
side  of  one  of  those  mountains,  and  not  on  the  most  lofty 
and  craggy  and  inaccessible  peak.  At  the  foot  or  side  of 
the  mountain  lay  the  garden  of  Eden,  through  which  the 
river  ran,  afterwards  dividing  itself  into  four  streams. 
That  the  mountain  and  the  ark  resting  on  it  should  be 
ever  held  in  veneration,  is  not  only  probable,  but,  accord- 
ing to  the  constitution  of  man,  and  history,  most  certain  ; 
and  since  tlie  whole  human  race,  in  all  ages  and  countries, 
could  not  see  this  mountain  and  ship,  it  is  most  probable 
that  similar  mountains  and  high  places  would  remind 
them  of  it,  and  that  vessels  sailing  on  the  ocean  and  rivers 
should  be  interesting  objects  to  them,  and  that  pictures 
and  imitations  of  the  mountain  and  ark  should  also  be 
made  in  after  time.  Although  we  do  not  affirm  that  the 
scriptures  give  us  the  origin  of  the  religious  use  of  moun- 
tains, as  it  is  altogether  probable  that  they  were  thus  used 
in  other  tribes  and  nations  before  the  days  of  Abraham, 
when  Moses  first  makes  mention  of  it,  yet  we  do  affirm 
that  the  records  of  Moses  furnish  a  divine  sanction  for  this 
method  of  commemorating  the  use  of  Mount  Ararat  in 
receiving  the  ark. 

The  first  instance  of  the  religious  use  of  a  mountain,  as 
related  by  Moses,  is  that  of  Noah  on  Mount  Ararat,  where, 
on  leaving  the  ark,  he  built  an  altar  and  offered  sacrifice. 
The  next  is  tliat  of  Abraham,  on  a  mountain  between 
Bethel  and  Hai,  where  he  built  an  altar  and  called  ui:)on 
the  name  of  tlie  Lord,  and  where  he  afterwards  found  his 
place  of  worship  on  returning  from  Egypt.  The  next  was 
Mount  Hebron,  then  Mount  Moriah,  where  he  went,  by 
divine  direction,  to  sacrifice  his  son  Isaac,  and  which  was 
called  the  Mount  of  the  Lord,  The  next  was  Mount 
Gilead,  wliere  Jacob  ofiered  a  sacrifice.  Moses  himself 
had  evidence  of  the  favor  shown  by  God  to  elevated 
places  in  the  manifestations  of  himself. 


ON  THE   DELUGE.  227 

In  Horeb,  called  the  Mount  of  the  Lord,  he  appeared 
unto  Moses,  commissioning  liim  for  his  great  work, 
and  told  him  by  what  name  to  call  the  God  who  sent 
him. 

At  Sinai,  not  far  distant  from  Iloreb,  God  appeared  in 
the  midst  of  clouds  and  lire  and  thunder,  and  spake  unto 
him,  and  delivered  the  ten  commandments,  written  with 
his  own  hand,  and  delivered  sundry  other  statutes  to 
Moses.  If  we  pursue  the  history  of  the  Jewish  nation 
through  the  time  of  the  judges,  the  prophets,  and  the 
kings,  we  shall  find  numerous  instances  in  which  God  hon- 
ored mountains  and  high  places  by  appointing  them  for 
sacrifices  and  holy  observances.  Especially  did  he  choose 
Jerusalem  as  the  place  for  his  great  temple,  calling  it 
Mount  Zion,  and  bidding  the  people  assemble  there  for 
his  worship  three  times  a  year,  and  making  it  the  per- 
manent abode  of  the  hitherto  wandering  ark  of  the  cove- 
nant. Kor  did  our  Lord  himself,  wliile  on  earth,  though 
declaring  that  God  might  be  worshipped  in  every  place 
if  worshipped  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  despise  the  ancient 
and  honored  temples  of  nature.  He  chose  one  of  them 
for  the  delivery  of  that  first  of  sermons,  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount.  He  himself  loved  to  retire  into  some  of  the 
mountains  around  Jerusalem  to  pray ;  he  chose  a  moun- 
tain for  his  fierce  contest  with  the  evil  one.  The  Mount 
of  Olives  was  his  favorite  resort,  and  from  a  mountain 
did  he  ascend  up  into  heaven  when  his  work  on  earth 
was  consummated. 

Doubtless  some  of  the  most  acceptable  sacrifices  and 
efi'ectual  fervent  prayers  were  oftered  up  in  such  places 
by  the  faithful,  not  only  in  Abraham's  line,  but  in  other 
lines,  before  the  true  faith  and  worship  were  lost  to  the  lat- 
ter upon  earth.  Koah  himself,  who  with  some  of  his  more 
pious  descendants  may  long  have  lingered  near  the  bliss- 
ful seat  of  paradise,  in  sight  of  the  lofty  Ararat  and  of  the 


228  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

sacred  ark,  may  sometimes  have  revisited  it  for  sacred 
prayer  and  sacrifices. 

However  natural,  however  innocent  this  use  of  elevated 
places  in  the  early  ages  for  purposes  of  worship  and  for 
perpetuating  the  recollection  of  the  deluge,  this,  like  all 
other  things,  became  perverted  in  the  hands  of  man  to 
sinful  and  idolatrous  purposes.  Some  of  the  learned  be- 
lieve that  the  tower  of  Babel,  which  was  the  similitude 
of  some  high  mountain  peak,  was  built  either  M'itli  a  view 
of  bidding  defiance  to  another  deluge,  or  for  the  purpose 
of  worshipping  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars.  That  these  were 
worshipped  afterwards  on  the  tops  of  temples,  mountains, 
and  hills,  is  undeniable.  The  scriptures  are  full  of  God's 
denunciations  against  the  high  places  in  Israel,  on  which 
sacrifices  to  the  gods  of  the  heathen  were  offered.  The 
pious  kings  and  judges  in  Israel  evinced  their  zeal  in 
behalf  of  the  worship  of  the  true  God  by  destroying  the 
altars  and  the  groves  where  these  sacrifices  w^ere  made, 
although,  in  some  instances,  they  were  permitted  to  be  used 
for  the  pure  worship  of  Jehovah,  at  any  rate  until  the 
temple  worship  was  established  at  Jerusalem,  on  Mount 
Zion. 

But  in  process  of  time,  in  various  parts  of  the  world, 
not  only  were  these  and  other  memorials  of  the  deluge 
used  in  the  worship  of  false  gods, — the  deified  inhabitants 
of  the  ark  especially, — but  the  very  memorials  themselves, 
the  high  places  and  pillars  and  towers,  were  superstitiously 
regarded.  The  creature,  instead  of  the  Creator,  was 
adored ;  the  sign  and  memorial,  instead  of  the  thing  it- 
self, were  worshipped. 

It  is  affirmed  by  some,  that  every  sign  in  the  Zodiac,  as 
we  have  it  in  all  the  almanacs  of  the  land,  has  special 
reference  to  the  deluge.  It  would  extend  the  length  of 
our  treatise  too  much  to  enter  into  an  explanation  of  all 
this.     The  reader  may  find  it  all  in  the  learned  work  of 


ON"  THE   DELUGE,  229 

Mr.  Ilarcoiirt  on  the  deluge.  We  must  content  ourselves 
with  selecting  a  few  out  of  the  numerous  memorials  of  the 
deluge,  which  are  furnished  by  the  temples  of  religion, 
the  sacred  caverns,  pillars,  and  towers  celebrated  in  the 
heathen  world. 

The  mountains  of  Ararat  consist  of  two  high  peaks,  with 
a  kind  of  valley  between,  presenting  the  appearance  of  the 
head  of  a  bull  with  his  horns,  especially  when  in  a  mood 
to  lock  his  horns  with  another ;  or  a  new  moon  in  its  cres- 
cent state  ;  or  of  a  ship,  with  its  prow  and  stern.  There- 
fore it  is  that  these  three  things  are  so  prominent  in  all  the 
descriptions  and  celebrations  of  the  deluge.  The  bull  was 
called  Taurus,  because  his  horns  referred  to  the  residence 
of  the  great  chieftain  of  the  ship  on  one  of  these  horns  or 
peaks.  Several  mountains  are  called  Tau,  or  Taurus,  for 
the  same  reason.  The  Phoenician  name  for  a  bull  and  a 
ship  is  the  same.  Mount  Ararat  is  called  baris  (a  ship), 
by  the  natives,  because  of  the  ship,  or  ark,  which  rested 
on  it,  and  whose  remains  were  seen  on  it  for  a  long  time.'^' 

The  ark  was  certainly,  in  some  measure,  the  pattern 
after  wdiich  many  temples  were  built  in  after  ages.  The 
celebrated  temple  at  Stonehenge  in  England  is  circular, 


*  Other  mountains,  it  is  true,  lay  claim  to  the  honor  of  being  the  earthlj^ 
paradise,  and  the  residence  of  those  who  were  saved  from  the  deluge.  IMount 
Menu  in  Asia,  at  the  head  of  the  Ganges,  in  the  Caucasian  range  of  mountains, 
claims  to  have  been  the  abode  of  the  gods.  Mount  Olympus,  in  Greece,  ^'■Eter- 
nal sun-^ldne  settling  on  its  liead"  was  the  favorite  seat  of  the  Grecian  gods. 
Parnassus  was  the  haunt  of  the  Muses.  These,  with  others,  claim  the  honor  of 
rescuing  the  human  race  from  destruction  by  the  waves.  This  is  not  more 
wonderful  than  that  so  many  localities  claim  to  be  the  birthplace  of  Homer. 
These  various  claims  pi'ove  that  there  was  such  a  poet  as  Homer,  which  some 
pretend  to  disbelieve.  All  these  claims  for  the  honor  of  being  the  receptacle 
of  the  tempest-tost  ark,  only  establish  the  fact  of  the  deluge  and  the  ark. 
Deucalion  was  called  "A  Floater  on  the  Seas."  The  Persians  call  Ararat  "The 
Mountain  of  Noah" — some  call  it  "The  Mountain  of  the  Eight."  The  Turks 
call  it  "  The  Beloved  Mountain."  Who  can  question  the  identity  of  Noah  and 
his  family  with  all  others  who,  in  different  countries  and  languages,  were  said 
to  be  involved  in  a  deluge,  or  saved  by  a  mountain,  or  ship." 


230  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE    CLASSICS. 

but  the  sanctum  is  like  the  hull  of  a  ship.  In  Ireland, 
and  elsewhere,  the  Druids  had  many  such  temples.  We 
read  of  a  large  ship-temple  in  Egypt,  dedicated  to  Isis. 
The  Chinese  sometimes  have  their  tombs  in  the  form  of  a 
crescent  or  new  moon,  or  bull's  head,  all  much  tlie  same  in 
form,  and  place  them  in  high  situations.  Travellers  have 
said  that  the  ruins  of  Babel,  when  last  seen,  resemble  a 
hill  with  a  tower  on  the  top. 

In  ancient  times,  the  Druids,  in  Yorkshire  especially, 
selected  high  hills  for  their  bonfires  (good-fires)  so-called, 
because  fires  of  peace,  religious  exhibitions.  Tlie  Per- 
sians, it  is  well  known,  used  to  ascend  the  highest  moun- 
tain in  order  to  worship  and  sacrifice.  The  summits  of 
some  hills  in  India  are  covered  witli  pagodas.  The  an- 
cient Celts  loved  the  mountains,  as  well  as  rivers  and  lakes, 
for  worship.  The  Pelasgi  consecrated  the  summits  of  high 
mountains  to  Jupiter,  and  there  erected  altars,  for  which 
reason  he  was  called  Jupiter  Epacrias,  "  the  god  of  high 
summits."  The  Gauls  had  a  sanctuary  consecrated  to  Jupi- 
ter upon  the  highest  of  the  Alps.  There  is  also  a  remark- 
able one  on  that  part  of  Mount  Atlas,  in  Africa,  which 
projects  into  the  Atlantic,  and  is  almost  surrounded  by  the 
ocean.  To  the  Western  Lybians,  now  called  Africans,  it 
was  both  a  temple  and  an  idol.  There  is  also  Mount  Athos, 
in  Macedonia,  which,  like  Atlas,  is  almost  surrounded  by 
the  sea.  It  has  been  a  holy  mountain  from  the  earliest 
period  to  the  present  time,  being  filled  with  cells  for  the 
priests.  Wonderful  things  are  told  of  it,  in  ancient  fables. 
To  these  we  might  add,  Phrygian  Ida,  the  Sicilian  Eryx ; 
and  we  might  almost  say  that  all  the  nations  of  Europe, 
Asia,  and  Africa  had  their  high  mountains  in  esteem  as 
places  of  public  worship.  The  infidel,  Baily,  admits  the 
historical  fact,  but  is  unable  to  account  for  it.  What  is 
yet  more  remarkable,  all  of  them  make  one  of  these  higli 
mountains  the  abode  of  the  first  gods,  who  were  the  fathers 


ON  THE   DELUGE.  231 

of  the  liuman  race,  and  also  tlie  place  where  the  ark  of 
the  deluge  rested.  Man,  ever  prone  to  idolatry,  has  paid 
undue  reverence  to  them  all ;  wherefore,  God  said  by  hie 
prophets,  "  In  vain  is  salvation  hoped  for  from  the  hills 
and  from  the  multitude  of  the  mountainSp" 


CHAPTEK   XYI. 

ON       THE      DELUGE. PART       THIRD. 

As  there  are  many  parts  of  the  earth  where  high  moun- 
tains and  deep  caverns  resembling  the  ark  were  not  to 
be  found,  and  where  yet  the  inhabitants  wished  to  com- 
memorate the  deluge  and  the  ark  in  their  religious  wor- 
ship, artificial  imitations  of  the  same  must  be  substituted. 
Such  was  the  plain  of  Shinar  in  Assyria,  on  the  river  Eu- 
phrates, where  the  great  tower  of  Babel  was  begun  by 
Nimrod,  and  afterwards  finished  by  ]!!iinus  as  the  temple 
of  Belus,  where  the  worship  of  the  sun  was  so  long  ob- 
served. How  long  this  occurred  after  the  deluge ;  how 
many  mountains  and  high  hills  they  may  have  used  on 
their  migrations  to  this  place ;  how  much  error  may  have 
mingled  with  their  v/orship  ere  they  reached  the  plains ; 
how  much  of  the  worship  of  the  sun  may  have  been  there 
established,  are  matters  of  dispute  among  the  learned. 
Certain  it  is  that  this  was  the  great  metropolis  of  Sabi- 
anisra,  or  Sun-worship,  for  ages  after,  and  that  reference 
was  had  in  its  very  structure  to  the  mount  of  the  deluge^ 
and  the  ark.  Herodotus  mentions  that  there  was  not  only 
a  temple  on  the  top  of  this  first  and  greatest  of  pyramids, 
which  towered  on  high  from  the  plain  like  the  peak  of  a 
mountain,  but  a  chapel  or  sacellum,  lower  down,  with  a 
figure  of  Belus  in  a  sitting  posture^  as  in  Egypt. 

A  reference  to  those  in  Egypt  will  throw  light  upon 
this  point.  The  first  of  the  pyramids  in  Egypt  was  built 
on  the  bank  of  the  Kile,,  in  the  form  of  a  mountain,  with 


ON  THE   DELUGE.  233 

a  temple  or  tower  on  the  top.  It  was  doubtless  built  by 
those  M'ho  brought  the  Chaldean  religion  into  Egypt  when 
it  was  overrun  by  the  shepherd  kings,  who  subdued  the 
original  settlers,  the  descendants  of  Misraim  the  son  of 
Ham,  who  it  is  believed  had  a  purer  form  of  worship.  It 
was  called  "  The  Egyptian  Babel,"  being  an  express  copy 
of  that  at  Babylon. 

Thucydides  and  other  Greek  writers  speak  of  the  remains 
of  this  neglected  pyramid.  Other  pyramids,  as  those  at 
Sackarra  and  Cairo,  were  built  afterwards,  in  the  same 
form,  and  doubtless  during  the  six  hundred  years  of  bond- 
age to  the  shepherd  kings,  the  period  of  its  greatest  glory 
in  the  arts  and  sciences.  One  of  these  is  called  the  great 
pyramid,  being  larger  than  all  others.  In  the  centre,  into 
which  you  must  crowd  hrough  a  small  door  and  a  long 
tortuous  passage,  much  like  a  serpent,  there  is  a  chamber, 
thirty -four  feet  by  seventeen  and  a  half,  wntli  a  pitch  of  nine- 
teen and  a  half.  Thirty  feet  above  this  is  another  chamber 
of  the  same  dimensions,  except  that  it  is  lower  pitched.  In 
one  of  the  other  pyramids,  to  the  north  and  west,  there 
are  suits  of  caverns  cut  out  of  the  solid  rock,  with  small 
doors.  There  was  an  interior  chamber  in  the  body  of  the 
pyramid,  but  the  entrance  to  it  was  so  closed  up  with 
rubbish  that  it  was  inaccessible.  It  is  affirmed  that  these 
apartments  were  for  the  dwellings  of  the  priests,  and  mys- 
terious religious  celebrations.'^' 

Herodotus  speaks  of  two  other  pyramids,  which  seem 
to  refer  still  more  to  Mount  Ararat.  They  were  built 
where  tlie  lake  Moeris  was  dug,  the  waters  being  let  in  all 
around  them  so  as  to  enclose  and  bury  a  part  of  them,  and 

*  We  read  in  the  Prophets  of  a  bed  being  shorter  than  a  man  can  stretch 
himself  on  it,  and  the  covering  narrower  than  be  can  wrap  himself  in.  The 
cells  of  the  priests  were  sometimes  called  beds,  and  were  often  very  small. 
Such  was  especially  the  case  with  the  Druid  priests,  who  were  much  given  to 
austerities  in  religion.  Some  of  these  cells  were  little  more  than  small  arks 
or  chests,  in  which  they  could  scarcely  move  themselves.        _ 


234  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

thus  give  the  appearance  of  the  two  peaks  of  Mount  Ararat 
when  the  deluge  was  retiring.  But  we  must  not  suppose 
the  pyramids  of  Egypt  were  the  only  artificial  mountains 
with  doors  opening  into  inward  recesses,  and  thus  bearing 
the  resemblance  to  Ararat  and  the  ark.  Mr.  Faber  and 
others  tell  us  of  a  large  pyre  with  an  oviform  chamber  in 
it,  in  the  county  of  Meath,  in  Ireland,  and  of  a  still  larger 
one  in  Wiltshire,  in  England. 

In  Tanjore,  of  Asia,  there  is  also  a  small  island  which 
is  covered  with  a  pyramid,  all  of  whose  sides  rise  up  to  a 
point  from  the  water's  edge,  and  appear  like  the  peak  of 
a  mountain,  in  a  retiring  deluge.  There  was  also  a  huge 
one  near  Tyre,  said  to  have  been  built  by  earth-born  giants. 
We  find  one  also  in  the  island  of  Otaheite,  which  is  said 
to  be  two  hundred  and  sixty-six  feet  long  and  eighty-six 
wide.  But  besides  these,  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland 
are  covered  with  smaller  buildings  of  stone,  or  earth,  or  ot 
both,  from  a  few  feet  square  to  twenty  or  thirty,  which  are 
the  remains  of  the  Druidical  houses  of  worship.  They 
are  called  Barrows,  Cairns,  and  Cromlechs,  and  have  in- 
terior cells  or  chambers,  reminding  of  the  ark  and  its 
door  at  the  side.  They  are  to  be  found  on  the  tops  of  hills 
and  mountains,  or  on  the  borders  of  lakes  and  seas.* 

*  The  stone  arks  or  chests  of  the  British  Druids  were  formed  of  three  large 
stones,  set  up  rectangularly,  and  covered  with  a  broad  slab,  being  open  on  one 
side,  representing  the  door  of  the  ark.  This  was  called  the  womb  of  the  great 
mother  Ceridwen,  and  was  also  viewed  as  a  prison.  These  small  arks  were  some- 
times the  abodes  of  the  Druid  priests.  It  may  not  be  amiss,  in  this  connection, 
to  mention  that  among  the  Israelites,  by  God's  command,  pillars  and  piles  of 
stones,  somewhat  resembling  the  peaksof  a  mountain,  were  set  up  as  memorials 
of  great  deliverances  and  of  covenants.  When  Joshua  made  a  covenant  with 
the  people  of  Shechem,  he  took  a  great  stone  and  set  it  up  under  an  oak  that 
was  by  some  sanctuary,  to  be  a  witness  between  them.  Also,  when  the  people 
had  passed  through  Jordan  dry-shod,  he  made  them  erect  two  pillars  of  stones 
taken  from  the  bed  of  the  river,  one  being  placed  in  the  bed  of  the  river  and 
the  other  on  dry  ground  in  Gilgal,  which  were  to  be  seen  for  a  long  time  as 
memorials  of  deliverance  from  the  waters  of  Jordan  at  the  time  when  it  over- 
flowed its  banks;  and  must  they  not  have  been  reminded  by  these  of  the  greater 
deliverance  of  Noah  and  his  family  from  a  greater  flood? 


ON  THE   DELUGE.  235 

These  were  of  early  date,  and  evidently  came  from  the 
East.  The  Brahmins  are  strong  in  their  assertion  of  an 
early  intercourse  between  India  and  the  British  islands. 
Britain  has  ever  been  celebrated  for  its  religion.  One  of 
the  islands  was  called  the  "  "White  Island,"  or,  as  Aristotle 
named  it,  Albion — which  the  poets  love  to  this  da}'-.  In 
one  of  the  Puranas,  or  sacred  books  of  India,  Britain  is 
called  Breta-st-han^  or  "The  place  of  religious  duty." 
The  arkite  religion — which  dealt  most  in  the  veneration 
of  the  deluge,  the  ark,  Ararat,  and  the  ISToatic  deities — 
was  the  favorite  in  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  and 
also  among  the  Atlantians  of  Western  Africa,  so  that  we 
may  expect  to  see  more  of  these  memorials  among  them. 
When  the  apostate  Hercules  forced  upon  the  Irish  the 
worship  of  the  sun,  it  is  said  they  cursed  it  while  wor- 
shipping it.  According  to  Pomposius  Mela,  the  Atlantians 
cursed  the  sun  as  he  arose,  and  as  he  set : 

"Atlantes  solem  execrantur  et  dum  oritur,  et  dum  occidit." 

But  as  there  are  various  parts  of  the  world  where  not 
only  mountains  but  rocks  and  pyramids  are  not  easily 
found,  so  we  find  that  earth  was  used  in  order  to  raise 
something  which  might  resemble  a  mountain  for  religious 
worship.  In  Hindostan  these  mounds  or  tumuli  abound, 
from  five  to  twenty-five  feet  high,  on  which,  upon  certain 
days,  portable  shrines,  with  images  of  their  deities,  are 
placed.  They  are  called  Meru  Seringas,  or  Peaks  of  Meru, 
the  Ararat  of  Asia. 

If  we  go  to  Upper  Asia  we  shall  find  the  whole  of  the 
plains  of  Tartary  dotted  with  mounds  or  tumuli,  from  six 
to  eight  feet  high,  and  often  ten  times  wider  at  the  base. 
Near  Sardis  the  plain  is  covered  with  them,  some  of 
which,  according  to  travellers,  are  of  stupendous  size. 

Though  dead  bodies  are  to  be  found  in  some  few,  yet  it 


236  THE   BIBLE  AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

is  well  established  that  they  are  not  intended  or  used  as 
sepulchres,  but  for  places  of  worship.  And  if  we  pass 
over  from  the  Old  world  to  the  ISTew,  we  shall  find  in  its 
memorials  a  most  important  link  connecting  the  two  to- 
gether, and  showing  that  their  inhabitants  had  one  com- 
mon origin.  In  the  two  Americas,  among  the  Indians 
north  and  south,  not  less  than  three  thousand  of  these 
mounds  have  been  counted,  varying  in  height  from  ten  to 
two  hundred  feet.  They  are  so  ancient  that  the  present 
race  are  unable  to  tell  of  their  origin  or  design.  That 
they  are  not  sepulchres,  with  a  few  exceptions,  has  been 
well  ascertained  ;  and  that  some  of  them  in  South  Amer- 
ica were  used  for  religious  worship  is  also  well  known. 
But  who  can  doubt  their  origin,  when  considering  their 
universality  and  great  antiquity  ? 

But  we  have  yet  more  numerous  and  striking  memo- 
rials of  the  ark  and  Ararat  in  another  class  of  sacred 
places  to  be  found  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  I  allude 
to  the  temples,  natural  or  artificial,  in  the  interior  of  hills 
and  mountains  ;  either  caverns  or  excavations  made  by 
art,  and  divided  into  cells  and  chambers  for  the  residence 
of  priests,  and  the  performance  of  religious  worship  or 
celebrations  of  dark  mysteries.  Could  their  number  be 
estimated,  or  their  figures  and  architecture  displayed, 
what  surpise  would  seize  upon  us  ! 

Let  us  begin  with  Egypt.  In  Upper  Egypt  there  are 
temples  cut  out  of  the  granite  rock  of  the  mountains, 
three  sides  of  course  being  closed.  In  the  front  only  is  a 
low,  small  door,  as  in  the  ark.  Numerous  cells  and  saloons 
are  within,  requiring  artificial  light.  Mr.  Bruce,  in  his 
"Travels  through  Egypt,"  says  of  these  sanctuaries,  "  They 
are  studied  copies  of  the  great  gloomy  ship  of  the 
deluge." 

Of  that  which  was  called  the  labyrinth  of  Egypt,  He- 
rodotus says,  "  It  exceeded  all  the  other  wonders  and 


ON   THE    DELUGE.  237 

works  of  tliat  coiinby  ;"  it  had  three  tlionsand  apart- 
ments, one  half  of  them  above,  tlie  other  half  below  the 
ground.  lie  M'as  only  allowed  to  visit  the  former :  the 
latter  were  for  the  celebration  of  their  mysteries. 

It  is  said  that  Sesostris  bnilt  a  huge  and  magnificent 
ship,  of  cedar,  dedicating  it  to  the  Egyptian  Osiris,  who 
was  exposed  in  the  ark.  This  ship  was  in  the  interior  of 
the  country,  and  of  course  not  intended  for  navigation. 
In  various  parts  of  the  British  isles  the  Druids  had  rock- 
ing stones  cut  in  the  form  of  a  ship.  Mr.  Rooke  examined 
thirty  of  them,  and  found  them  all  formed  by  art,  and 
capable  of  being  rocked  like  a  ship  on  the  M\ater  without 
being  overturned.  There  is  a  superstition  in  India  which 
deserves  to  be  mentioned  as  bearing  witness  to  the  x)ass- 
age  out  of  the  ark  through  the  door,  Avhereby  the  bless- 
ings of  light  and  liberty  were  obtained. 

They  pass  or  squeeze  themselves  through  a  perforated 
rock,  in  order  to  obtain  what  they  call  regeneration. 
Bishop  Ileber  tells  us  of  a  temple  in  Hindostan,  to  which 
devotees  resort  for  regeneration.  In  it  is  a  hole  through 
which  they  pass  from  below,  and,  emerging  above,  they 
are  purified  from  all  their  sins  and  come  out  regenerate. 
We  must  not  forget  to  mention  the  interesting  testimony 
to  the  ark,  which  we  have  in  the  history  of  the  preserva- 
tion of  Moses,  when  a  child,  in  the  ark  of  the  bulrushes, 
on  the  banks  of  the  Nile.  It  Avas  doubtless  committed 
to  its  waters  with  many  prayers.  Miss  Hannah  More's 
sacred  drama  of  "  Moses  in  the  Bulrushes  "  represents  the 
mother  of  Moses  as  thus  describing  her  pious  care  in  its 
construction  : 

"  Know  that  this  ark  is  strongly  cased 
With  incantations  Pharaoh  ne'er  employed, 
With  magic  spells  which  Egypt  never  knew, 
Witli  aspirations  to  the  living  God. 
I  twisted  every  slender  reed  together, 
And  with  a  prayer  did  every  osier  weave." 


238  THE   BIBLE  AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

The  celebrated  labyrinth  of  Crete  was  of  the  same  kind 
with  those  mentioned  by  Herodotus  ;  and  the  Minotaur 
confined  therein  was  believed  to  have  been  none  other  than 
ISToah,  in  the  ark  of  many  cells  and  chambers.  The  best 
idea  of  one  of  these  temples  would  be  derived  from  one 
of  our  subterranean  caves  seen  by  candle  or  lamp-light. 
If  any  are  shocked  at  thus  renouncing  the  light  of  heaven, 
and  preferring  such  places  to  the  temples  lighted  by 
God's  glorious  luminary  in  the  heavens,  let  them  con- 
template the  tendency  of  such  things  in  the  splendid 
entertainments  now  become  fashionable,  in  which  at 
noonday  the  shutters  are  closed,  and  lamps  and  candles 
illuminate  the  halls  and  parlors. 

The  temjjles  for  the  idols  in  Peru  and  Mexico  were  also 
dark  places.  Those  in  Mexico,  it  is  said,  were  darkened 
by  the  putrid  gore  of  the  victims  which  were  offered  to 
their  idols.  Justly  does  the  Psalmist  call  those  of  the  old 
world  "  The  dark  places  of  the  earth,  full  of  the  habita- 
tions of  cruelty." 

Passing  from  Egypt  into  Asia,  we  find  the  Persians, 
notwithstanding  their  reputed  objection  to  temples,  hav- 
ing their  grottos  in  mountains.  They  are  hewn  out  of 
perpendicular  rocks,  but  so  as  to  present  the  appearance 
of  a  square  ark,  in  which  there  is  an  entrance  through  a 
small  door. 

In  Ilindostan,  the  pagodas  have  a  single  small  door, 
five  feet  in  height.  They  are  without  windows,  artificial 
lights  being  required  within.  In  Upper  India,  the  cele- 
brated grottos  of  Ella  are  hewn  out  of  a  solid  pyramidal 
rock.  The  entrance  is  througli  a  small  door,  as  was  that 
to  the  ark.  Within  are  lofty  pillars  and  many  apartments, 
in  which  are  many  images  of  their  gods,  especially  those 
of  Siva  and  Parvata,  the  deities  which,  according  to  the 
Hindoo  mytholog}^,  floated  on  the  surface  of  the  deluge. 
In  the  island  of  Elephanta,  three  leagues  from  Bombay, 


ON  THE   DELUGE,  239 

is  another  temple  in  a  recess,  thirty  feet  square.  There 
is  also  one  near  Tyre,  like  the  rest  in  form,  but  with  the 
addition  of  two  towers  which  resemble  the  peaks  of 
Ararat.  There  are  also  some  remarkable  ones  near  Inker- 
man,  in  the  Crimea,  being  cut  out  of  the  solid  rock,  and 
filled  with  cells  and  chambers.  They  are  supposed  to  be 
the  work  of  the  Indo-Scythians  at  a  very  remote  period. 

The  resemblance  between  the  ark,  with  the  door  in  its 
side,  and  a  cavern  with  its  mouth,  serves  to  explain  the 
following  tradition : 

The  great  father,  in  different  countries,  is  often  said  to 
be  "  born  from  a  cave,"  to  be  "  nursed  in  a  cave,"  and 
to  have  "  dwelt  in  a  cave."  The  most  ancient  god  and 
king  of  Japan  is  said  to  have  once  hid  himself  in  a  cave, 
and  was  adored  as  sitting  on  a  cow.  The  ark  is  often 
represented  as  a  cow  or  ox,  bearing  the  family  of  Noah 
in  its  womb,  and  swimming  the  deluge. 

The  British  Hu  was  worshipped  in  a  cleft  or  cavern  of 
an  island  washed  by  the  ocean.  Apollo  was  worshipped 
in  a  cavern  near  the  river  Lethe  or  Styx.  The  small 
shrines  of  Buddha  were  actually  built  in  rocky  caverns. 
The  Peruvians  used  to  say  that  when  the  earth  was  repeo- 
pled  after  the  deluge,  their  ancestors  were  born  out  of  a 
cave.  To  this  we  may  add  that  the  great  mysteries  were 
always  celebrated  in  caverns  or  in  temples  built  like  caves, 
and  that  the  chief  things  celebrated  were  the  facts  of  the 
deluge, — ^an  ark  or  boat  always  being  carried  about  by  the 
hierophant,  and  their  songs  related  the  delivery  of  some 
god  from  the  deluge.  The  philosophers,  such  as  Plato  and 
Pythagoras,  always  spoke  of  the  earth  "  as  the  dark  cav- 
ern of  imprisoned  souls." 

To  the  above  we  must  add  that  the  sanctuary  of  the 
Crimean  sibyl  was  a  cavern,  and  that  the  mouth  of  the 
oracle  of  Delphi  was  the  fissure  of  a  rock.  Yery  difierent 
is  the  manner  of  our  God.     lie  said,  by  the  mouth  of  the 


240  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

prophet  Isaiali,  "  I  have  not  spoken  in  secret  in  the  dark 
places  of  the  earth."  When  our  Lord  came,  he  spake 
openly,  and  bade  his  apostles  to  proclaim  his  words  from 
the  housetop.  AVhoever  would  see  the  abominations  car- 
ried on  in  dark  places,  must  turn  to  Ezekiel,  chapters  viii. 
and  ix.,  where  he  depicts  the  same  as  transferred  to  the 
people  of  Israel.  The  sins  of  their  holy  things,  in  the  dark 
chambers  visited  in  the  vision  of  the  prophet,  beggar  de- 
scription. 

ISLANDS    ALSO   MEMORIALS    OF   THE   DELUGE. 

We  read  much  in  pagan  mj^thology  of  sacred  islands 
and  floating  islands.  They  are  the  favorite  abodes  of  the 
gods  and  the  seats  of  oracles ;  and,  though  at  the  first  men- 
tion of  it  the  assertion  may  seem  strange,  yet  on  a  little  con* 
sideration  it  will  be  seen  that  between  a  high  mountain 
such  as  Ararat,  and  an  island,  there  is  no  little  similitude. 
AVhat  was  Ararat,  w^ien  the  deluge  was  retiring  from  it, 
but  a  circular  island  in  the  midst  of  a  boundless  ocean  I 
Every  island  in  like  manner  rises  from  the  water,  and  is 
more  or  less  like  mount  Ararat,  as  it  is  above  the  sea  and 
is  covered  with  hills  or  mountains,  AVhen  Xoah,  then, 
looked  out  from  the  ark  v/hile  resting  on  the  mountain,  he 
saw  a  boundless  ocean  around,  himself  on  a  small  island. 
It  was  the  whole  world  to  him.  He  saw  the  circle  of  the 
world.  The  ancients  considered  the  world  as  an  island  in 
the  midst  of  the  sea,  and,  leaving  out  America,  was  it  not  so? 
What  are  all  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  but  a  great  island 
in  the  midst  of  the  ocean?  Wherefore,  many  traditions 
tell  of  the  deluge  being  the  bursting  of  the  bounds  of  the 
great  lake  or  sea,  and  overflowing  the  land,  and  the  inhab- 
itants being  pursued  by  this  monster,  the  sea,  who  is  called 
Python  or  Typlion,  one  family  alone  escaping,  in  a  raft  or 
ship,  to  the  top  of  a  high  mountain,  or  else  burying  them- 
selves in  a  cavern  on  the  summit  of  the  sam.e.     The  ark, 


ON  THE   DELUGE.  241 

with  the  little  island  or  peak  on  which  it  rested,  was  indeed 
a  world  in  itself,  for  it  contained  the  seed  of  the  world  of 
men  and  beasts  which  were  soon  to  replenish  it.  The 
learned  Hale  estimates  the  ark  as  being  capable  of  bearing 
more  than  forty-two  thousand  tons,  equal  to  eighteen  Eng- 
lish men-of-war,  and  able  to  hold  twenty  thousand  men 
with  provisions  for  six  months.  It  need  not  therefore 
seem  so  incredible  that  such  numbers  of  animals  should 
have  been  preserved  in  it. 

THE   MYSTIC    EGG   OF   MTTIIOLOGY. 

We  read  much,  in  connexion  with  the  ark  and  the  del- 
uge, of  a  mystic  egg  which  floated  on  the  ocean  during  the 
deluge,  and  out  of  which  was  born  a  new  world.  It  is 
sometimes  the  world  itself,  sometimes  the  great  prolific 
father  or  motlier  of  all  things.  In  the  celebration  of  the 
mysteries  it  was  always  a  prominent  symbol.  It  is  carried 
about  in  the  baris,  or  ark.  In  the  hieroglyphics  of  Egypt 
and  the  Eastern  world  it  is  sometimes  placed  between  the 
horns  of  a  bull,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  represent  the  ship 
or  ark,  with  its  prow  and  stern.  As  the  egg,  over  which 
the  fowl  has  brooded,  in  due  time  brings  forth  from  itself 
its  young,  so  the  Deity  brings  forth  all  things  from  him- 
self; and  so  the  ark  in  due  time  brought  forth  from  its 
womb  anew  world.  The  ancient  worship  and  celebration 
of  the  mysteries,  as  well  as  the  poets  and  philosopliers,  are 
full  of  such  figures  and  conceits,  or  fal)les  as  they  were 
called,  yet  they  point  to  some  sacred  truths  and  events. 
The  Hindoo  theology  is,  above  all  others,  rich  with  this 
theme.  The  mystic  egg  is  said  to  have  floated  for  a  year 
on  the  surface  of  the  ocean,  and  then  to  have  brought 
forth  the  great  father,  and  his  three  sons,  who  are  triplica- 
tions of  their  father,  and  who  together  make  the  Hindoo 
triads. 

16 


242  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 


THE   LOTOS,    OR    WATEK-LILT,    ANOTHER    SYMBOL     OF   THE    ARK 
AND   DELUGE. 

In  the  mythologies  of  ancient  nations,  and  in  the  celebra- 
tion of  their  worsliip,  we  read  much  of  this  remarkable 
aquatic  plant.  Its  roots  are  nourished  by  water  instead  of 
earth.  It  shoots  up  in  the  form  of  a  circular  boat  or  bell, 
and  floats  like  a  vessel  on  the  surface  of  the  water.  Its 
upright  pistil  is  like  the  mast  of  a  ship,  and  innumerable, 
almost  infinitessimal  seed  are  within  the  bell  or  calyx, which, 
when  matured,  are  scattered  by  the  winds  and  waves  over 
the  surface  of  the  waters,  to  become  the  parents  of  new 
plants.  It  is  prolific  in  the  highest  degree,  and  well  might 
be  selected  to  represent  Noah  and  his  family  of  men  and 
beasts  reposing  on  the  surface  of  the  ocean,  and  ready  to 
repeople  the  earth  and  ocean  with  inhabitants.  It  is  often 
confounded  with  the  ark  or  baris,  and  the  erect  pistil  is 
the  hero  or  chieftain  of  .the  ark,  the  pilot  or  mast  of  the 
vessel. 

Other  symbols  might  be  mentioned  testifying  to  the 
great  facts  of  the  deluge ;  but  if  these  be  not  sufficient  to 
establish  the  universal  belief  of  those  facts  in  the  ages 
nearest  their  occurrence,  wherever  the  human  race  made 
its  settlements,  we  despair  of  doing  it. 

This  only  we  add,  that  pillars  of  stone,  sometimes  of 
wood,  called  stocks,  and  stones  or  columns,  soaring  high 
in  the  air,  and  which  abounded  in  various  countries,  are 
supposed  to  refer  to  this  same  great  event  which  occurred 
on  the  great  mountain  of  Asia.  They  all  became  objects 
of  idolatrous  veneration.  Therefore  it  is  that  we  are  for- 
bidden to  "  bow  down  to  stocks,  stones,  and  dumb  idols.^' 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

THE    DISPERSION"    FROM    Bi\JJEL,    AND    THE    DH^SION    OF   THE 
EARTH   AMONG   THE   DESCENDANTS    OF   NOAH. 

In  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Genesis  we  have  the  foHow- 
ing  account  of  what  will  form  the  subject  of  this  chapter: 

"  And  the  whole  earth  was  of  one  language  and  of  one 
speech.  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  they  journeyed  from  the 
East,  they  found  a  plain  in  the  land  of  Shinar ;  and  they 
dwelt  there.  And  they  said,  Let  us  build  us  a  city  and  a 
tower  whoso  top  may  reach  unto  heaven  ;  and  let  us  make 
us  a  name,  lest  we  be  scattered  abroad  upon  the  face  of 
the  whole  earth.  And  the  Lord  came  down  to  see  the  city 
and  the  tower  which  the  children  of  men  builded.  And 
the  Lord  said,  Behold,  the  people  is  one,  and  they  have  all 
one  language  ;  and  this  they  begin  to  do  ;  and  now  nothing 
will  be  restrained  from  them  which  they  have  imagined 
to  do.  Go  to,  let  us  go  down  and  there  confound  their 
language,  that  they  may  not  understand  one  another's 
speech.  So  the  Lord  scattered  them  abroad  from  thence 
upon  the  face  of  the  whole  earth.  And  they  left  off  to 
build  the  city :  therefore  is  the  name  of  it  called  Babel." 

It  is  believed  that  before  this  time,  probably  before  the 
death  of  Noah,  and  by  him,  God  had  distributed  the  earth 
among  his  sons,  although  they  had  not  taken  possession 
of  their  portions  in  order  to  replenish  the  earth.  They 
seem  to  have  kept  together,  and  to  be  disposed  to  form 
one  mighty  nation.    By  building  a  great  city  and  a  mighty 


244  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE    CLASSICS. 

teiDple,  tliey  thought  to  effect  this.  In  all  human  prob- 
ability, through  the  corruption  of  human  nature  and  its 
strong  tendency  to  idolatry,  they  had  already,  in  some 
measure,  lost  sight  of  the  true  God,  as  was  the  case  with 
their  fathers  before  the  flood,  and  with  the  Israelites  at  a 
later  period,  notwithstanding  God's  wonderful  dealings 
with  them.  Perhaps  they  had  already  begun  to  deify 
their  great  ancestor  Noah,  and  his  sons,  if  they  had  left 
the  earth.  Perhaps  they  imagined  them  transplanted  to 
the  heavenly  bodies,  and  paid  a  joint  adoration  to  them 
and  their  abodes.  It  may  be  tluit  tJiey  were  about  to  es- 
tablish some  common  worship  in  this  great  tein[>le,  and 
God  saw  lit  to  break  up  their  schemes  and  disperse  them 
through  the  earth.  Such  is  the  supposition  of  some  of 
the  learned,  though  no  one  can  speak  positively  on  a  sub- 
ject which  God  has  not  thought  proper  to  reveal  to  us, 
and  to  hand  down  by  history  and  tradition.  One  thing 
i-enders  this  hypothesis  most  probable,  viz :  the  remark- 
able i-esemblance  between  the  traditions  and  religious 
systems  prevailing  in  all  the  countries  into  which  they 
were  scattered,  not  only  in  general  principles,  but  in  ob- 
servances of  a  merely  arbitrary  kind. 

Had  different  systems  of  religion  and  forms  of  worship 
been  first  invented  and  established  in  the  different  coun- 
tries where  the  tribes  and  colonies  settled,  we  might  have 
expected  a  great  variety  of  doctrines  and  forms  instead  of 
that  renuirkable  resemblance  which  is  found  to  liave  ex- 
isted, especially  at  the  first.  The  difference  of  names, 
arising  from  tlie  variety  and  multiplicity  of  languages, 
seems  to  have  been  the  chief  difference.  Thus,  all  tlie 
early  traditions  and  histories  point  to  Noah  and  his  sons, 
and  the  ark  and  deluge,  tln^ugh  the  names  given  to  them 
are  as  numerous  and  different  as  the  languages  them- 
selves. There  is  some  variety  of  opinion  among  commen- 
tators and  mythologists  as  to  the  number  of  persons  con- 


THE   DISPERSION   FROM   BABEL.  245 

cerned  in  building  the  city  and  tower  of  Babel,  and  as  to 
the  time  in  which  it  was  done.  Althongh  it  is  not  our 
plan  to  enter  into  such  discussions,  but  rather  to  select 
such  facts  as  are  most  generally  agreed  npon,  and  make 
the  best  use  of  the  same  for  promoting  the  object  we  have 
in  view,  yet  we  cannot  but  incline  to  the  opinion  which 
places  the  dispersion  after  the  death  of  Noah  and  of  at 
least  two  of  his  sons,  Hani  and  Japheth :  the  life  of  Shem 
being  extended  to  five  hundred  years  after  the  deluge. 
There  is  nothing  in  scripture  or  any  other  history  to  lead 
to  the  supposition  that  Noah  or  either  of  his  sons  was  at 
all  concerned  in  this  transaction :  and  there  is  somethinar 
shocking  in  the  thought  that  they  could  have  been  alive, 
and  had  become  "  hoary  rebels"  against  the  God  whom 
they  had  served  in  their  j'outh,  and  who  had  so  wonder- 
fully preserved  them.  Epiphanius  tells  us,  that  from  an- 
cient documents,  whence  the  history  of  the  Scythians  (a 
very  ancient  people)  was  compiled,  it  appears  that  Noah 
resided  in  Armenia  until  his  death  ;  that  his  descendants 
multiplied  there  for  six  hundred  and  fifty-nine  years,  and 
then  journeyed  to  the  laud  of  Shiuar.  Berosus,  the  his- 
torian of  Babylon  and  Chaldea,  who  drew  his  statement 
from  the  national  archives,  says  that  Zizuthrus, — that  is, 
Noah, — died  and  was  translated  to  heaven  before  the 
emigration  from  Armenia  to  Shinar.  He  says  the  same 
of  the  wife  and  children  of  Zizuthrus,  that  they  were 
"  transplanted  to  heaven,"  which  means  the  same  as  be- 
ing deified. 

Whatever  difficulty  there  may  be  in  deciding  the  exact 
chronology  of  the  event,  (and  the  uncertainty  of  early  post- 
diluvian chronology  is  admitted,)  these  testimonies  from 
pagan  writers  establish  the  fact  of  a  great  emigration  from 
Armenia  to  Shinar,  where  Babylon  was  built.  Berosus 
also  confirms  the  scripture  account  of  their  coming  from 
the  East,  which  has  puzzled  some  persons  since.    Armenia, 


246  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

we  know,  is  more  to  the  north  of  Babylon.  But  Berosus 
says  that  "  When  they  quitted  the  mountain  upon  which 
the  ark  rested,  they  travelled  in  a  circle  previous  to  their 
arrival  at  Babylonia."  It  is  thought  that  they  followed 
the  course  of  the  river  Euphrates,  descending  by  it  to 
Shinar,  and  that  by  so  doing  they  would  take  a  route 
which  would  bring  them  from  the  East  into  Shinar,  though 
not  from  the  distant  East.  The  other  difference  of  opinion 
is  as  to  the  persons  engaged  in  this  work.  Mr.  Bryant,  with 
others,  thinks  that  only  the  descendants  of  Ham  in  the  line 
of  Cush,  under  the  lead  of  his  ambitious  grandson,  ISTim- 
rod,  were  concerned  in  the  rebellion  at  Babel  ;  and  that 
they,  after  having  settled  further  East,  according  to  a  previ- 
ous division  of  tlie  earth,  came  to  Shinar,  and  determined 
here  to  establish  a  mighty  empire,  as  was  actually  done, 
notwithstanding  their  defeat  in  building  the  city  and  tower. 
He  argues  in  favor  of  this  from  the  fact  that  tliese  descend- 
ants of  Cush  and  Nimrod  were  the  warriors  of  the  earth, 
once  overrunning  almost  all  lands,  and  establisliing  their 
dominion  in  religious  and  civil  government.  Mr.  Faber 
and  others  object  to  this,  and  quote  the  language  of  Moses, 
who  says,  "  The  whole  earth  w^as  of  one  language  and  of 
one  speech.  And  as  they  journeyed  from  the  East,  they 
found  a  plain  in  the  land  of  Shinar,  and  there  they  dwelt. 
There  they  began  to  build  the  city  and  the  tower ;  and  the 
Lord  scattered  them  abroad  from  thence  upon  all  the  face 
of  the  earth,  and  confounded  their  language."  This  lan- 
guage is  thought  to  be  too  strong  and  comprehensive  to 
admit  of  the  theory  which  limits  the  ambitious  act  to  the 
descendants  of  Cush,  although  there  are  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  supposing  that  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  were 
concerned  in  it.  But  if  they  had  not  so  multiplied  as  to 
be  too  numerous  and  too  much  scattered  to  be  collected 
for  this  purpose,  we  may  suppose  them  to  be  so  mingled 
together  that  a  considerable  portion  of  all  the  families  de- 


THE  DISPERSION  FROM  BABEL.  247 

scendecl  from  Noah  might  have  been  engaged  in  the  work. 
Bnt  in  one  thing  nearly  all  are  agreed,  viz  :  that  the  de- 
scendants of  Ham  in  the  line  of  Cnsli  and  Nimrod  were  the 
chief  actors,  and  that  they  were  eminently  scattered  through 
the  Avorld,  giving  laws  and  customs  and  religious^systems 
and  worship  to  many  nations  in  Europe  and  Asia,  as 
well  as  in  the  whole  of  Africa ;  nor  ceasing  with  these, 
for  many  of  the  tribes  of  America  are  most  probably  de- 
scended from  the  Asiatic  branch. 

The  division  of  the  earth,  we  are  told  in  Genesis  x.,  was 
in  the  days  of  Peleg,  the  fourth  in  descent  from  Sliem,  the 
son  of  JSToah.  The  word  Peleg  signifies  division.  He 
must  have  been  coeval  with  Nimrod,  the  grandson  of 
Ham  and  son  of  Gush,  who  was  called  "  a  mighty  one  in 
the  earth,"  "  a  mighty  hunter  before  the  Lord."  The  be- 
ginning of  his  kingdom  was  Babel.  In  the  brief  sketch 
we  shall  give  of  the  division  and  settlement  of  the  earth, 
we  will  take  the  sons  of  Noah  in  the  order  in  which  they 
stand  in  the  Mosaic  history,  viz :  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japheth. 
We  would  premise  that  it  was  the  work  of  God  himself, 
and  most  probably  by  Noah  before  his  death,  although 
they  do  not  appear  to  have  occupied  their  several  lots  until 
forced  to  do  so  by  the  judgments  of  God  at  Babel. 


THE    DESCENDANTS    OF    SHEM. 

In  the  thirty-second  chapter  and  the  eighth  verse  of  the 
book  of  Genesis,  Moses  says,  "  When  the  Most  High 
divided  to  the  nations  their  inheritance,  when  he  sepa- 
rated the  sons  of  Adam,  he  set  the  bounds  of  the  people, 
according  to  the  number  of  the  children  of  Israel."  Here 
is  an  evident  allusion  to  the  assignment  of  Judea  to  the 
descendants  of  Shem  ;  though  it  was  seized  on  by  the  pos- 
terity of  Canaan,  who,  as  some  one  says,  "in  their  whole 


248  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

history  seemed  to  be  conscious  that  they  were  usurpers." 
The  only  other  notice  we  have  of  an  assignment  of  a  lot 
to  the  descendants  of  Shem,  is  in  the  tenth  chapter  of 
Genesis,  where  we  read  of  Joktan,  the  brother  of  Peleg 
and  son  of  Eber,  from  whom  the  Hebrews  took  their  name, 
and  who  was  the  third  in  descent  from  Shem.  Of  Joktan 
and  his  descendants  it  is  distinctly  written,  that  "  their 
dwelling  was  from  Mesha,  as  thou  goest  to  Sephar,  a 
mount  of  the  east,"  that  is  Asia,  east  of  Babylon.  The 
south  of  Asia  seems  to  have  been  settled  by  these  ;  they 
are  the  Hindoos,  or  East  Indians,  though,  as  we  shall  see, 
the  descendants  of  Ham  soon  followed  them,  taking  pos- 
session of  large  portions  of  Asia,  and  mingling  with  the 
descendants  of  Shem. 

The  children  of  Shem  were  Elam,  and  Ashur,  and  Ar- 
phaxad,  and  Lud,  and  Aram.  All  these,  the  sons  of  the  fa- 
vored son  of  Koah,  seem  to  have  settled  in  the  countries 
around  Babylon,  and  not  far  from  Canaan.  It  is  said  of 
Ashur  that  he  went  forth  from  Babylon,  and  built  Nine- 
veh and  other  cities,  and  established  the  Assyrian  empire, 
which  took  its  name  from  him. 

Mr.  Bryant  thinks  it  probable  that  the  expression  "  he 
went  forth,"  meant  he  was  driven  out  by  Nimrod,  whose 
kingdom  was  at  Babylon,  and  that  he  built  cities  of 
defence  against  Ximrod.  In  the  course  of  time  the  de- 
scendants of  Nimrod,  at  Babylon,  called  Cushites,  were 
overconie  by  the  Assyrians,  and  driven  into  Arabia  and 
other  places.  They  are  supposed  to  have  been  the  shep- 
herd kings  who  invaded  Egypt,  overcoming  it,  and 
reigning  there  for  many  centuries.  It  is  thought  that 
the  countries  settled  by  these  sons  of  Shem  were  assigned 
to  them  in  the  division  of  the  earth, — indeed,  that  Asia 
was  given  to  Shem,  Europe  to  Japheth,  and  Africa  to 
Ham  ;  but  that  the  ambitious  descendants  of  the  latter 
w^ould  not  comply  with  this  division,  but  seized  on  what 


THE   DISPERSION   FROM   BABEL.  249 

countries  they  chose,  preferring  above  all  others  the  cen- 
tral regions,  the  portion  of  Sheni. 

When  tlie  Israelites  took  possession  of  Canaan,  the 
prophetic  curse  of  Noah  was  fulfilled  on  the  son  of  Hara, 
"Nvho,  according  to  some  learned  commentators,  was  prob- 
ably gnilty  of  irreverence  towards  his  grandfather.  The 
curse  was  in  these  words  :  "  Cnrsed  be  Canaan  ;  a  servant 
of  servants  shall  he  be  to  his  brethren."  The  descendants 
of  Canaan  became  subject,  it  is  well  known,  unto  the 
descendants  of  Slieni  and  Japheth — their  nation  being 
utterly  destroyed. 

Many  of  the  other  descendants  of  Ham  have  also  been 
servants,  although  for  the  most  part  they  have  been  lords 
over  the  rest.  God  has  indeed  blessed  Shem,  in  making 
him  the  father  of  his  chosen  people  and  of  the  family  in 
which  the  Saviour  of  the  world  was  born.'^^ 


THE   DESCENDANTS   OF   HAM,    AND  THEIR   LANDS. 

The  sons  of  ITam  were  Cush,  Misraiu),  Phut,  and  Ca- 
naan. Cush  and  his  descendants  seem  to  have  been  in 
possession  of  that  part  of  Asia  which  comprised  what  was 

*  Mr.  George  Rawlinson's  remarks  concerning  the  doscondants  of  Shem  are 
worthy  of  insertion  in  this  place.  "What  is  especially  remarkable  of  the 
Semitic  family,  (that  of  Shem,)  is  its  concentration,  and  the  small  size  of  the 
district  which  it  covers  compared  with  the  space  occupied  by  the  other  two. 
Deducting  the  scattered  colonies  of  the  Phccnicians,  mere  points  upon  the 
earth's  surface,  and  the  thin  slip  of  territory  running  into  Asia  Minor  from 
Upper  Syria,  the  Semitic  races,  in  the  time  of  Herodotus,  were  contained 
within  a  parallelogram  1,G00  miles  long,from  the  parallel  of  Aleppo  to  the  north 
of  Arabia,  and  on  an  average  of  400  miles  broad.  Once  in  the  world's  his- 
tory, and  once  only,  did  a  great  movement  proceed  from  this  race  and  country, — 
that  of  the  Saracens,  which  was  only  temporary.  It  had  not  the  power  of  any 
vigorous  growth  and  enlargement  like  that  promised  to  Japheth,  and  possessed 
by  the  descendants  of  Ham.  But  with  its  physical  and  material  weakness  is 
combined  a  wonderful  capacity  for  afficting  the  spiritual  condition  of  our 
species.  Semitic  races  have  influenced,  far  more  than  any  other,  the  history 
of  the  world's  mental  progress;  and  the  principal  intellectual  revohitious  which 
have  taken  place  are  traceable  in  the  main  to  them." 


250  THE  BIBLE  AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

culled  the  Assyrian  empire,  the  first  of  the  four  great  em- 
pires of  the  earth,  covering  all  of  Ethiopia  in  Asia,  which 
is  sometimes  called  Mesopotamia,  and  is  the  territory  be- 
tween the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates;  also  Chaldea  and 
Babylon  beyond  the  Euphrates,  or  the  flood  as  it  was 
sometimes  called  ;  also  Media  and  Persia.  Nirarod  and 
his  successors  were  the  first  kings  of  this  empire,  some- 
times called  the  Cuthric,  or  Scuthric ;  sometimes  the 
Iranian  empire.  A  large  portion  of  the  northern  part 
was  afterwards  called  the  Scythian,  which  name,  as  well 
as  the  population,  was  derived  from  Cush ;  it  was  also 
called  Cuthite,  or  Skuthic. 

The  other  sons  of  Ham,  viz.,  Misraim  and  Phut,  took 
quiet  possession  of  Egypt,  and  in  time  spread  themselves 
over  all  Africa.  Some  think  that  Phut  removed  to  India, 
and  became  the  father  of  the  famous  sect  of  Buddha,  he 
himself  being  the  divine  Buddha.  After  a  time  some  of  the 
descendants  of  Cush  and  Nimrod,  being  warlike  and  am- 
bitious, invaded  Egypt,  and  took  and  held  possession  of  it 
for  six  hundred  years,  with  the  exception  of  a  short  period  : 
these  were  called  "  the  shepherd  kings,"  the  Pharaohs  of 
Egypt.  Egypt  was  iu  its  highest  glory  during  their  usur- 
pation. It  was  then  that  it  reached  its  greatest  attain- 
ments in  the  arts  and  sciences.  But  the  descendants  of 
Ham,  through  Cush  and  Nimrod,  soon  began  to  send  out 
their  colonies  along  the  Mediterranean,  and  to  the  north 
of  Greece  and  Italy,  and  in  time  mingled  themselves 
with  the  earlier  settlements  of  Japheth, — until  they  became 
the  Germans,  Gauls,  Celts,  and  Saxons  of  history.  At 
length  they  took  possession  of  the  isles  of  the  north,  and 
became  our  ancestors — the  Ano-lo-Saxons  of  England. 


THE   DISPERSION"  FEOM  BABEL.  251 


JAPHETH   AND   HIS   DESCENDANTS. 

The  sons  of  Japlieth,  according  to  Moses,  were  Go- 
mer,  Magog,  Madai,  Javan,  Tubal,  Mesliecli,  and  Tiras. 
"By  these  were  the  isles  of  the  Gentiles  divided  in  their 
lands,  every  one  after  his  tongue,  after  their  families,  in 
their  nations."  The  isles  of  the  Gentiles  were  all  those 
lying  in  the  Mediterranean  and  Arcliipelago, — compre- 
hending, indeed,  the  whole  of  Europe,  which  is  surround- 
ed by  islands.  Javan  seems  to  have  been  the  most  prom- 
inent of  the  sons  of  Japheth,  giving  name  to  the  first 
inhabitants  of  Greece,  who  were  called  Javanites,  and 
afterward  Jaonites.  But  Moses  tells  us  that  in  jS^oah's 
prophecy  over  his  sons  he  declares  "  God  shall  enlarge 
Japheth,  and  he  shall  dwell  in  the  tents  of  Shem."  We 
have  seen  that  Asia,  or  a  large  portion  of  it,  was  assigned 
to  Shem ;  but  Japheth  was  to  be  enlarged,  and  dwell  in  the 
tents  of  Shem.  This  was  fulfilled  in  the  fact  that  all  the 
northern  parts  of  Asia, — that  is,Tartary  and  Siberia, — were 
settled  by  the  descendants  of  these,  and  that  many  of  the 
Chinese  are  supposed  to  be  from  these  settlements.  To 
this  we  may  add,  the  high  probability  that  many  of  the 
Korth  American  tribes  came  from  those  who  crossed  over 
the  narrow  strait  which  divides  the  l^orth  of  Asia  from 
America. 

Having  presented  this  geographical  and  historical  view 
of  the  dispersion  and  settlement  of  mankind,  as  set  forth 
in  scripture,  let  us  see  how  other  histories  and  traditions 
confirm  the  same.  We  have  already  adduced  some  pas- 
sages from  Berosus  and  other  ancient  writers.  To  these 
Ave  add  tlie  followino-. 

Among  the  Greeks,  Chronus,  their  ancient  god,  who 
could  have  been  none  other  than  Noah,  or  Adam  re- 
appearing in  Koah,  divided  the  whole  earth  between  his 


252  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

three  sons,  Jupiter,  Neptune,  and  Pluto.  Plato  mentions 
an  ancient  legend,  that  the  gods  formerly  divided  among 
these  the  whole  earth.  In  the  oracles  of  Zoroaster  the 
Persian  there  is  a  similar  tradition,  except  that  the  divi- 
sion is  ascribed  to  Nous  or  the  Intelligence, — that  is,  Noah, 
the  father.  In  the  Hindoo  mythology  we  read  of  three 
worlds,  under  the  god  of  the  ark,  Siva,  which  are  sup- 
posed to  be  the  three  quarters  of  the  earth, — Europe,  Asia, 
and  Africa, — under  the  three  sons.  There  is  one  country 
mentioned  in  scripture  whose  name  belongs  to  several  dif- 
ferent places,  and  on  which  a  few  remarks  are  called  for. 
It  is  that  of  Ethiopia.  The  name  is  derived  from  Ethiops, 
one  of  the  names  of  Jupiter,  the  son  of  Yulcan.  Concern- 
ing the  Ethiopia  which  lies  between  the  Tigris  and  the 
Euphrates,  or  what  is  sometimes  called  Mesopotamia, — 
that  is,  hetween  rivers, — Stephanus,  of  Bysantium,  says, 
"  Ethiopia  was  the  first  established  country  in  the  world, 
and  the  people  who  first  introduced  the  worship  of  the 
gods  and  who  enacted  laws."  They  are  a  branch  of  the 
Cushites,  and  the  same  with  the  Sythse,  or  Sythians,  of 
whom  Justin  said,  "  The  Sythse  were  ever  esteemed,  of  all 
nations,  the  most  ancient  in  the  world."  Situated  as  Asi- 
atic Ethiopia  was,  it  must  have  been  the  most  ancient  of 
nations.  There  was  another  in  the  south  of  India  called 
Ethiopia,  whose  inhabitants  are  black,  though  distin- 
guished from  Southern  Africans.  Ovid,  in  his  fable  of 
"  Perseus  and  Andromeda,"  represents  Perseus  as  stealing 
and  bearing  away  Andromeda  from  tlience  : 

"  Andromeden  Perseus  nigris  portavit  ab  Indis." 

There  was  another  Ethiopia  in  Africa,  from  which 
the  whole  of  it,  or  a  large  part  of  it,  was  called.  Stra- 
bo  tells  us  of  a  tradition  among  the  people  of  Tartessus, 
opposite  to  Spain,  that  the  Ethiopians, — those  from  Africa, 


THE   DISPERSION   FROM   BABEL.  253 

I  suppose, — once  traversed  that  region  of  Africa  quite  to 
its  western  limits,  and  that  some  of  them  came  and  settled 
at  Tartessus  ;  others  got  possession  of  dilierent  parts  of  the 
coast ;  some  lived  near  the  island  of  Ei'jthea."  An  ancient 
writer  says, 

"  Upon  the  great  Atlantic,  near  the  isle 
Of  Erythea,  for  its  pastures  famed, 
The  sacred  race  of  Ethiopians  dwell." 

Homer,  in  his  "  Odyssey,"  alludes  to  some  in  Mauritania, 
—a  region  of  Africa, — as  Ethiopians,  and  in  stature  the 
largest  of  any  nation  known  to  him."  Eporus  says  that 
"The  family  of  the  Ethiopians  seem  to  me  to  have  estab- 
lished themselves  from  the  winter  tropic  in  the  East  to  the 
extremity  of  the  West."  Strabo  also  speaks  of  them  as 
extending  "  in  a  long  line  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  to  the 
2:oino;  down  of  the  same."  Who  is  not  reminded  of  that 
beautiful  and  most  encouraging  passage  in  one  of  the 
prophets — "  From  the  rising  of  the  sun  even  unto  the  go- 
ing down  of  the  same,  my  Name  shall  be  great  among  the 
heathen,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts ;  and  in  every  place  in- 
cense shall  be  offered  unto  my  name,  and  a  pure  offering  ?" 
And  how  it  enlarges  our  minds,  when  we  read  or  hear  the 
promise  "Ethio])ia  shall  stretch  out  her  hands  unto  God," 
to  think  of  a  country  stretching  from  India  on  the  Pa- 
cific, to  Mount  Atlas  on  the  Atlantic,  across  two  conti- 
nents, and  from  Gibi'altar,  or  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  to 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  stretching  out  her  hands  in  sup- 
plication or  thanksgiving  to  the  Lord  for  the  gospel ! 

In  relation  to  that  part  of  the  scripture  which  speaks  of 
Canaan  as  being  the  portion  assigned  to  the  descendants 
of  Shem,  but  being  seized  upon  by  those  of  Ham,  we  ad- 
duce the  following  testimonies:  Eusebius  says,  ''  Canaan, 
the  son  of  Ham,  was  guilty  of  trespass  and  innovation  upon 


254  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

the  allotment  of  Sliera,  and  took  up  his  habitation  there 
contrary  to  the  commandment  of  God."  Sjncellns  says, 
"The  sons  of  Shem  made  war  with  the  sons  of  Ham  about 
the  boundaries  of  Palestine." 

On  the  subject  of  the  confusion  and  multiplication  of 
lano-uases  at  Babel,  I  have,  in  other  parts  of  the  book, 
alluded  to  traditions  among  the  ancient  nations  bearing 
upon  and  confirming  the  Mosaic  account.  As  to  what 
was  the  one  speech  of  which  Moses  speaks,  or  one  lip,  as 
it  is  sometimes  rendered,  which  was  certainly  the  language 
of  Noah,  and  probably  of  Adam  and  the  whole  antedi- 
luvian world ;  and  as  to  the  number  of  languages  at  Babel, 
— I  state  the  opinion  of  Sir  William  Jones,  one  of  the  great- 
est scholars  and  linguists  of  his  day,  who  spent  many  years 
of  his  life  in  India  carefully  studying  the  Eastern  lan- 
guages and  mythologies,  and  contributing  largely  to  the 
volumes  of  "Asiatic  Eesearches"  published  by  the  society 
of  which  he  was  president. 

After  digging  into  the  roots  of  various  languages,  and 
tracing  all  their  stems  and  branches,  and  comparing  them 
together,  he  concludes  that  there  were  only  three  lan- 
guages, from  which  all  the  rest  sprung  as  dialects.  These 
three  he  says  are  so  essentially  difterent  in  grammar,  words, 
and  construction,  that  neither  of  them  could  have  been 
taken  for  the  other. 

Mr.  Faber  says  that  if  the  original  language  given  by 
God  to  our  first  parents,  and  preserved  until  the  disper- 
sion, had  been  continued,  and  two  others  had  been  added, 
the  effect  would  have  been  the  same, — that  is,  confusion 
of  tongues  would  have  ensued.  May  not  all,  in  some 
degree,  have  been  drawn  from  the  original  one,  and  yet 
so  varied  as  to  answer  the  divine  purpose  ? 

It  deserves  to  be  mentioned,  as  one  of  the  additional 
testimonies  to  the  truth  of  scripture,  that  the  laborious  re- 
searches of  eminent  linguists,  since  the  death  of  Sir  Wil- 


THE   DISPERSION  FROM   BABEL.  255 

liam  Jones,  have  continued  to  confirm  liis  opinion.  These 
liave  shown  that  the  resemblance  between  all  of  the  hm- 
guages  upon  earth  is  such  that  they  must  have  come  from 
a  very  few  which  began  to  be  used  soon  after  tlie  disper- 
sion from  Babeh  Previous  to  tliat  time,  we  have  the  tes 
timony  of  scripture  that  all  were  of  "  one  tongue,  or  lip." 


CHAPTEE    XYIII. 

THE    RELIGIOUS    OPINIONS    AND    WORSHIP    OF    THE    DISPERSED 
IN    ASIA. 

There  have  been  and  perhaps  are  still  those  who  think 
that  the  confusion  at  Babel  was  rather  a  confusion  of 
opinions  and  doctrines  than  of  languages,  by  which  God 
defeated  their  design  of  doing  some  great  thing  which 
displeased  him  ;  that  he  sowed  discord  among  them,  and 
prevented  them  agreeing  on  any  plan.  The  sacred  narra- 
tive seems  to  contradict  this,  and  tradition  is  in  favor  of 
the  more  general  and  literal  construction  put  u\)on  it. 
And  yet  it  is  highly  probable  that  there  may  have  been 
considerable  diversity  of  opinion  as  to  the  religious  sys- 
tem and  worship  to  be  established,  however  they  might 
agree  upon  the  main  facts  of  their  history,  and  the  chief 
object  or  objects  of  their  worship.  If,  as  is  most  j^robable, 
this  event  occurred  soon  after  the  death  of  Abraham, 
then  must  we  believe  that  false  views  of  religion  and  im- 
proper adoration  of  some  pei'sons  called  gods  may  have 
existed  before  the  building  of  Babel,  as  we  find  him  and 
his  father  Terali  seeming  to  yield  to  it.  It  may  have  be- 
gun before  the  descendants  of  Noah  left  Armenia  and 
settled  in  Shinar.  How  long  they  were  taking  their  jour- 
ney, by  slow  movements,  as  the  Israelites  from  Egypt; 
how  long  they  dwelt  in  the  plain  before  engaging  in  the 
work,  is  not  known,  and  therefore  we  cannot  decide  posi- 
tively on  the  subject.     Yery  ancient  traditions  speak  of 


THE   DISPERSED   IN  ASIA.  257 

two  sects  before  the  dispersion,  called  Sf/thismand  lonlsm, 
— the  one  exalting  the  male,  the  other  the  female  principle 
in  nature, — the  one  disposed  to  exalt  the  great  father, 
the  other  the  great  mother  of  the  human  i-ace,  for  both 
were  then  very  highly  honored,  if  not  worshipped. 

What  other  various  opinions  or  systems  may  have  ex- 
isted, if  division  had  already  begun,  we  know  not,  but 
certain  it  is  that  the  earliest  accounts  since  that  time 
refer  to  religious  differences. 

AVe  read  at  the  present  day  of  the  two  great  sects  in 
the  East,  called  Buddhists  and  Brahmins,  little  thinking 
of  their  very  early  origin,  and  of  their  wide  extension 
over  all  Asia,  Europe,  and  Africa,  and  of  their  translation 
into  America  with  the  first  colonists  ;  and  also  of  their  per- 
petuation for  a  long  time  in  our  countrj',  perhaps  their  con- 
tinuance to  the  present  time  in  some  places.  Those  sects 
did  indeed  divide  thewdiole  world  for  a  long  time,  though 
some  modification  of  their  tenets  and  some  additional 
objects  of  worship  took  place  in  different  countries. 
Since  Christianity  took  possession  of  Europe  and  a  por- 
tion of  Asia,  one  of  these  sects,  Brahminism,  has  greatly 
declined,  by  comparison  with  the  other,  Buddhism.  The 
latter  greatly  predominates  throughout  all  Asia,  though 
the  former  is  still  zealous  for  its  peculiarities,  its  superior 
orthodoxy  and  antiquity.  The  nations  of  Europe  were 
once  attached  to  one  or  the  other  of  them,  though  grad- 
ually modified  in  Greece  and  Italy  by  the  introduction  of 
practical  and  philosophical  principles. 

These  sects,  probably,  as  some  think,  issuing  from  Babel,, 
spread  themselves  rapidly  over  Asia  and  a  part  of  Europe. 
If  it  be  asked  wherein  they  differed,  it  will  be  diflicult 
to  give  an  answer  to  the  question, — as  difficult  as  to  say 
wherein  some  Christian  sects  differ.  The  deities  whom, 
they  worshipped,  though  called  by  different  names,  ac- 
cording to  the  various  languages  which  came  to  be 
17 


258  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

spoken,  were  the  same.  Sir  William  Jones,  in  a  learned 
article,  establishes,  beyond  controversy,  that  all  the  leading 
deities  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa  were  the  same,  being 
none  other  than  Noah's  family  in  the  ark.  Various  other 
learned  mythologists  have  also  established  this.  Other, 
deities  and  objects  of  worship  have  been  added,  but  these 
are  the  great  deities  of  the  pagan  world,  except  the  ineifa- 
ble  First  Cause,  who  is  scarcely  worshipped  at  all.  The 
Brahma  and  Buddha  of  India  were  the  same  with  the 
Jupiter,  the  Bacchus,  the  Dionusus,  the  Taut,  the  Hu,  the 
Woden,  the  Hercules,  and  others  of  Europe,  Asia,  Africa, 
and  America;  therefore  there  was  no  difficulty  in  intro- 
ducing their  worship,  their  system,  and  priests.  As  Noah 
had  three  sons,  and  was  said  to  triplicate  himself  into 
them  ;  as  Saturn  triplicated  himself  into  Jupiter,  Nep- 
tune, and  Pluto  ;  so  Brahm  divided  himself  into  Brahma, 
Vishnu,  and  Siva, — and  Buddha  into  Ismara  and  others. 
In  proof  that  the  great  objects  of  their  worship  were  the 
same,  there  is  a  common  festival  or  adoration,  when  the 
various  sects  of  Brahma  and  Buddha,  which  never  mingle 
together  at  other  times  and  places,  but  are  quite  bitter 
towards  each  other,  meet  in  perfect  friendship,  kneel  side 
by  side,  and  know  no  difference.  This  is  the  dreadful 
feast  of  Jagan-Nath.  or  Juggernaut,  at  Orissa  in  India. 
The  meaning  of  Jagan-Nath  is  "  The  Lord  of  the  Earth  " — 
their  great  common  Lord.  This  has  been  called  the  cen- 
tre of  their  great  theological  unanimity.  Immense  num- 
bers come  u})  to  ihis,  annually,  from  all  parts  of  the  land, 
both  Brahmins  and  Buddhists.  Not  only  the  inuige  and 
character  of  Jagan-Nath,  but  other  deities  whose  images 
are  with  his,  ];)oint  to  an  identity  of  religion.  This  wor- 
ship is,  like  much  other  in  the  pagan  world,  a  mixture  of 
obscenity  and  cruelty.  It  is  indeed  none  other  than  a  re- 
newal of  the  worship  of  Baal  and  Moloch  and  Astaroth 
in  Canaan.     And  all  these  were  none  other  than  Buddha 


THE   DISPERSED   IN"   ASIA.  259 

and  Brail  ma,  with  their  triads, — in  other  words,  I^oah 
and  his  tlirce  deified  sons.  All  who  would  wish  to  be 
fully  satislied  on  this  point  would  do  well  to  examine  the 
works  of  Faber,  Bryant,  and  many  others  who  have 
written  in  relation  to  it. 

Mr.  llarcourt,  in  his  learned  work  on  the  deluge,  says, 
"Amid  all  the  wantonness  of  polytheism,  some  very  in- 
telligible hints  remain,  that  the  real  objects  of  their 
multiform  idolatry  were  oidy  few,  and  tliose  their  earliest 
ancestors."  The  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  souls, 
M'hicli  prevailed  from  the  Indies  to  the  British  Isles,  being 
taught  equally  by  the  Brahmins  and  the  Buddhist  priests 
and  the  Druids  of  Gaul,  was  a  great  bond  of  union 
helping  to  unite  the  world  in  one  common  religion. 

But  that  there  should  be  disputes  on  a  subject  of  such 
great  importance  as  religion,  it  is  most  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose. There  were  such  before  the  deluge,  between  the  sons 
of  God  and  those  who  corrupted  religion,  and  the  latter  at 
length  prevailed  and  produced  a  general  apostas3\  There 
were  controversies  among  the  patriarchs  after  the  flood, 
when  idolatry  began  to  encroach  upon  the  true  faith.  So 
were  there  among  the  Jews,  when  many  of  them  forsook 
the  law  of  Moses  and  the  true  worship  of  Jehovah,  while 
others  continued  steadfast.  So  also  was  it  with  Chris- 
tianity, when  some  began  to  relapse  into  semi-paganism. 
So  doubtless  after  the  dispersion  there  may  liave  been 
more  of  the  true  knowledge  of  God  with  some  sects  than 
others.  At  this  distance  of  time  it  is  impossible  to  form 
any  probable  opinion  as  to  the  comparative  orthodoxy  of 
the  two  great  sects  now  spoken  of.  The  Buddhists,  who 
were  most  zealously  espoused  by  the  descendants  of  Ham 
through  the  line  of  Gush,  appear  to  have  been  more  dis- 
posed to  worship  Koah  under  his  astronomical  character, 
— the  Ram.  The  temples  of  the  sun  were  chiefly  dedicated 
to  Jupiter  Ammon, — that  is,  Ham.     Others  were  much 


260  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

opposed  to  i\\Q%Q  jire-ivorshi2)j)ers,  as  they  were  called,  and 
preferred  to  worship  Noah  as  the  god  of  the  ark,  being 
called  Arkites.  At  an  early  period,  when  the  descendants 
of  Misraini,  son  of  Ham,  had  possession  of  Egypt,  when  a 
more  primitive  religion  prevailed,  the  worship  of  the  sun 
was  not  established  there.  Diodorns  Siculus  tells  us  of  a 
certain  king, — a  worshipper  of  the  sun, — who  had  inscribed 
on  one  of  his  temples  an  imprecation  upon  Cneph,  the 
ancient  Egyptian  king  and  god,  thus  showing  the  opposi- 
tion between  the  two  systems.  But  after  the  shepherd 
kings, — wlio  were  worshippers  of  the  sun,— invaded  Egypt 
and  took  possession  of  it,  great  changes  took  place  in  their 
religious  systems  and  worship.  In  the  time  of  Joseph  they 
worshipped  On,  or  the  sun,  though  doubtless  connecting 
■with  it  that  of  Osiris,  supposed  to  be  the  same  with  Noah. 
Other  nations,  though  forced  to  worship  the  sun  by  the 
superior  power  of  their  conquerors,  who  were  his  worship- 
pers, would  curse  him  when  rising  and  setting,  and  even 
while  engaged  in  the  act  of  worshipping  him.  It  is  be- 
lieved that  the  ancient  mysteries  partook  much  more  of 
the  Arkite  school, — all  of  their  ceremonies  and  hieroglyph- 
ics relating  to  Noah  in  connection  with  the  ark  and 
deluge.  We  read  of  a  great  contest  between  the  Arkites  and 
the  Fire-worshippers  under  the  lead  of  the  first  and  great 
Hercules,  who  was  an  Arkite,  about  the  oracle  of  Delphi, 
which  was  rich  in  treasures.  We  read  also  of  a  contest 
between  the  Arkites  and  Prometheus  and  his  followers. 
He  is  supposed  to  be  the  grandson  of  Noah,  and  to  have 
been  the  first  to  erect  fire  towers.  We  read  much  in  an- 
cient history  of  the  wars  of  the  Titans,  which  must  refer 
to  the  religious  as  well  as  political  wars  of  the  worship- 
pers of  the  sun,  or  Titan,  who  were  chiefly  the  descend- 
ants of  Ham  through  Ciisli  and  Nimrod.  These  were  the 
giants  of  the  postdiluvian  world,  as  will  appear  when  we 
come  to  speak  of  ancient  Europe,  where  their  greatest  feats 


THE   DISPEESED   IN   ASIA.  261 

were  performed.  AVe  cannot  omit  some  mention  of  tlicm, 
however,  in  speaking  of  Asia,  the  sonthern  part  of  wliich 
was  settled  at  first  by  the  descendants  of  Shem,  and  the 
northern  part  by  those  of  Japheth,  but  whose  middle  part, — 
along  the  great  range  of  mountains, — was  taken  possession 
of  by  the  Cushites  or  Sythians,  and  whose  ambitious  and 
warlike  character  was  such  that  we  find  them  ever  min- 
gling with  the  others,  and  dictating  laws  and  religious  wor- 
ship, probably  being  the  priests  and  warriors  of  the  others. 
To  them,  by  general  consent  of  historians,  is  ascribed  the 
establishment  of  caste  in  India,  Persia,  China,  and  most  of 
Europe,  an  institution  which  gave  the  chief  character  to 
these  countries  in  ancient  times,  and  still  is  the  most  prom- 
inent and  most  injurious  feature  in  some  of  them.  The 
Cushites,  or  Sythians,  as  we  see  from  Strabo  and  others, 
profess  to  be  the  most  ancient  people  upon  earth,  and 
boast  themselves  against  the  Egyptians  with  their  high 
claims.  "When  settling  in  India  orHindostan,  and  estab- 
lishing caste  there,  the  Cushites  or  Sythians  claimed  divine 
authority  for  it.  They  declared  that  it  was  given  to  them 
by  the  god  of  the  ark,  among  other  regulations  found  in 
a  book  contained  in  the  ark.  The  name  of  Noah  with  them 
was  Mahabab.  The  book  was  called  Mahabab's  "Book 
of  Kegulations."  The  book  which  they  profess  to  have 
thus  gotten  is  still  extant,  and  was  examined  by  Sir  WW- 
liam  Jones,  who  declared  it  to  be  the  same  with  the  "  Insti- 
tutes of  Menu,"  which  also  claims  to  be  of  the  same  origin. 
Sir  William  Jones  has  translated  the  book  of  Menu  into 
English.  It  contains  many  excellent  rules  for  government, 
and  establishes  the  difl'erent  orders  or  castes,  giving  great 
power  to  the  parents.  He  thinks  this  book  of  Mahabab 
the  same  with  that  of  Menu,  and  that  it  was  carried  into 
Egypt  and  there  called  the  book  of  Taut,  or  Thoth,  which 
contains  the  same  division  into  castes.  The  priests  and 
soldiers  in  both,  as  in  all  other  countries  where  the  de- 


262  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

scendants  of  Cusli  prevailed,  had  immense  controlling 
power.  Sir  William  thinks  that  these  were  the  same  with 
the  celebrated  laws  of  Minos,  or  Meros,  in  Crete.  The 
identity  in  respect  to  the  priesthood  in  all  countries  is 
another  proof  of  the  common  origin  of  religious  institu- 
tions, when  the  people  were  all  assembled  at  Babel.  Py- 
thagoras, who  spent  forty  years  in  travelling  through  dif- 
ferent countries,  declared  that  he  received  the  same  in- 
strnctions  from  tlie  Druids  of  Gaul,  the  Magi  of  Persia, 
the  Brahmins  of  India,  and  the  priests  of  Egypt.  Who  but 
mnst  feel  tlie  force  of  this  testimony  ? 


THE    RELIGIONS    OF    ASIA. 

Having  taken  this  general  view  of  the  religious  sects 
wliich  sprang  out  of  the  dispersion  or  followed  it,  I  now 
take  the  different  quarters  of  the  globe,  according  to  their 
probable  settlement,  and  in  pursuance  of  the  design  of  my 
book,  will  select  such  things  in  their  religious  history  as 
will  serve  to  establish  the  scriptural  account  of  man. 

As  Asia  was  the  cradle  of  the  human  race,  the  favored 
spot  of  all  God's  visits  to  the  earth,  and  as  the  first-born 
of  ISToali  was  assigned  his  portion  on  this  continent,  we 
Avill  begin  with  it.  Of  tlie  land  of  Judea,  usurped,  and 
for  some  time  held  by  the  denounced  son  of  Ham,  we 
sliall  say  nothing  particular  in  this  place,  as  the  scriptures 
are  so  full  of  its  history,  and  as  we  have  so  frequent  occa- 
sion to  mention  it  elsewhere.  ISTeither  shall  we  dwell  on 
Phoenicia,  Persia,  or  Chaldea,  having  so  often  referred  to 
them,  and  quoted  from  Berosus,  Sanchoniathon,  Herod- 
otus, and  others  concerning  them.  We  will  rather  follow 
the  descendants  of  Shem  and  Ham  into  Eastern  Asia,  and 
see  what  the  Plindoos  and  Chinese  will  furnish  us  in  aid 
of  our  endeavor  to  prove  the  divine  origin  of  our  holy  relig- 


THE   DISPERSED   IN   ASIA.  263 

ion  from  their  tradition  and  worship.  We  sliall  derive  our 
inforniation  chiefly  from  the  volumes  of  the  Asiatic  So- 
ciety, which  lias  for  many  years  employed  the  ablest  of 
scholars  in  searchini;  into  the  literature  and  mythology  of 
the  East,  and  especially  from  the  learned  articles  written 
by  its  able  and  excellent  president,  Sir  AVilliam  Jones, 
who  spent  so  large  a  portion  of  his  life  in  India.  In  his 
universal  reading,  struck  with  the  resemblance  between 
the  religious  histoiy  of  all  nations  and  the  identity  in  the 
character  of  their  gods,  however  different  their  names, 
(which  of  necessity  must  be,  in  consequence  of  the  diver- 
sity of  languages,  the  same  god  having  as  many  names  as 
there  were  languages,)  he  has  written  an  article,  ah'eady 
mentioned,  showing  the  identity  of  the  Eastern  and  West- 
ern deities.  Old  Janus  at  Rome,  the  oldest  of  kings  and 
gods,  has  one  in  Hindostan  minutely  answering  to  him. 
Old  Saturn,  of  Greece,  has  a  striking  counterpart  in  Saty- 
avater,  Ceres,  the  daughter  of  Saturn,  has  her  counter- 
part in  one  called  the  goddess  of  Abundance  among  the 
Hindoos.  These  are  only  specimens  of  his  comparative 
view.  The  Indians,  he  says,  believe  that  water,  or  chaos, 
was  first  created,  according  to  Moses'  account.  As  to  the 
first  Cause  of  all  things,  about  which  so  much  has  been 
said  by  philosophers  and  mythologists,  the  Hindoos  called 
the  first  inclination  of  the  godhead  to  diversify  himself,  by 
creating  worlds,  by  the  name  of  Maya.  Some,  as  we  have 
said,  called  it  Sagacious  Love,  reminding  us  of  St.  John's 
definition,  "  God  is  lom^  As  to  tlie  ancient  Jupiter,  who 
was  before  all  others, — not  the  son  of  Saturn,  but  of  un- 
known parentage, — "The  Life  Giver,"  "The  Father  of 
gods  and  men,"  or,  according  to  Orpheus,  the  Jupiter 
who  produced  the  earth,  and  gods,  and  goddesses,  and 
men,  the  Abyss  and  Emporium,  Sir  William  says  that  he 
answers  well  to  the  Brahin  of  the  Hindoos.  He  doubted 
for  a  long  time  whether  their  Veda,  or  sacred  books,  were 


264:  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

extant,  but  at  length  obtained  and  translated  many  of 
them. 

The  Pnranas  are  also  sacred  books  among  the  Hindoos, 
consisting  of  prayers  and  holy  maxims.  The  following  is 
an  extract  from  one  of  these  books : 


DESCRIPTION    OF    THEIR    FIRST    DEITY. 

"  Even  I  was,  even  at  first — not  any  other  thing  existed  ; 
that  M'liich  exists  unperceived,  supreme  ;  I  am  that  which 
is,  and  he  who  must  remain  I  am."  In  his  Treatise  on  the 
Mystical  Poetrj-  of  the  Hindoos,  Sir  AVilliam  gives  us 
some  interesting  specimens.  The  following  is  from  the 
Poems  of  Hafis  :  "  In  eternity,  without  beginning,  a  ray 
of  thy  glory  gleamed,  when  love  sprang  into  being,  and 
cast  flames  over  all  nature.  From  the  moment  that  I 
heard  the  divine  sentence,  'I  have  breathed  into  man  a 
portion  of  my  spirit,'  I  was  assured  that  we  were  his,  and 
he  ours.  Oh  !  the  bliss  of  the  day  when  I  shall  depart 
from  tills  desolate  mansion;  shall  seek  rest  for  my  soul ; 
shall  follow  the  traces  of  my  beloved !  " 

The  following  is  from  one  of  their  Yedas,  or  Puranas  : 
"  Originally  there  was  soul  only.  He  thought,  I  will  create 
worlds.  So  he  created  worlds.  Then,  I  w^ill  create  guar- 
dians of  worlds.  He  framed  out  of  the  water  an  embodied 
being.  He  showed  him  to  the  deities  whom  he  had  made. 
They  exclaimed.  Well  done  !  Oh  I  w^onderful !"  Other 
contributions  to  the  volumes  of  the  "  Asiatic  Pesearches" 
deservcito  be  mentioned.  Francis  Buchanan  informs  us  that 
they  call  the  universe  Logha,  which  signifies  succession, — 
production  and  reproduction, — being  successively  destroyed 
by  water,  and  fire,  and  wind,  and  restored  again.  To  this 
we  way  add,  that  the  Hindoos,  as  well  as  the  mythologists 
of  the  West,  say  that  at  every  renovation  of  the  world 


THE   DISPERSED    IN   ASIA.  265 

the  same  events  take  place,  the  same  heroes  appear.  Bu- 
chanan sajs,  as  to  their  views  of  transmigration,  that  they 
believe  the  soul  perishes  with  the  body,  and  that  out  of 
the  same  materials  another  body  arises,  which  becomes 
either  a  man,  an  animal,  or  something  else,  and  that  such 
changes  take  place  in  one  or  more  worlds,  until  they  reach 
the  most  perfect  of  all  states,  which  is  a  kind  of  annihila- 
tion, free  from  all  suffering  and  death. 

Mr.  Colebrook,  a  writer  in  the  "Asiatic  Researches," 
gives  us  the  following  account  of  the  Hindoo  sects  :  "  Five 
great  sects  exclusively  worship  a  single  divinity.  One 
recognizes  the  five  divinities  which  are  adored  by  the  other 
sects  respectively.  But  the  followers  of  this  comprehen- 
sive' scheme  mostly  select  one  object  of  daily  devotion, 
and  pay  adoration  to  other  divinities  on  particular  occa- 
sions only.  Even  they  deny  the  charge  of  polytheism, 
and  they  repel  the  charge  of  idolatry.  They  justify  the 
practice  of  adoring  the  images  of  celestial  spirits,  by  ar- 
guments similar  to  those  which  have  been  elsewhere  em- 
j)loyed  in  defence  of  angel  and  image  worship."  Mr.  Pat- 
terson,— another  writer  on  the  Hindoo  religion,— thinks 
that  it  was  founded  at  first  on  pure  deism,  but  in  order  to 
comply  with  the  ideas  of  the  multitude,  they  personified 
the  three  great  attributes  of  God, — his  Almighty  power 
to  create  ;  his  providence  to  preserve  ;  and  his  power  to 
annihilate  or  change  what  lie  has  created.  Therefore 
they  worship  Brahma,  as  creator  ;  Yishnu,  as  preserver  ; 
Siva,  as  destroyer.  This,  however,  led  to  divisions  and 
wars  which  long  disturbed  the  whole  land.  To  this,  he 
adds  a  very  just  remark:  "The  mass  of  mankind  lose 
sight  of  morality  in  the  multiplicity  of  rites  ;  and  as  it  is 
easier  to  practise  ceremonies  than  to  subdue  evil  passions, 
ceremonies  gradually  became  substitutes  for  real  religion 
and  usurped  the  place  of  morality  and  virtue."  Such  was 
emphatically  the  case  with  Hindostan  and  Egypt,  which 


266  THE  BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

ever  liad  mncli  intercourse  with  each  other,  and  adopted  the 
same  principles  and  customs.  The  change  in  the  names 
of  the  gods  was  all  that  divided  them,  and  this  the  diversity 
of  languages  required.  The  worship  of  animals  was  such, 
in  both  countries,  that  their  very  excrements  were  some- 
times feasted  on.  Everything  that  had  life,^whether 
animal  or  vegetable  life, — was  supposed  to  have  some- 
thing of  the  deity  in  it,  and  was  worshipped.  Eating 
animals  alive,  as  well  as  their  excrements,  was  practised. 
Wherefore  it  is  said  of  Orpheus,  the  poet,  "Coedibus  et 
victu  foedo  deterruit."  I  conclude  on  the  subject  of  the 
Hindoo  religion,  by  referring  to  one  topic  which  makes  a 
prominent  feature  of  it,  and  which  ought  to  be  properly 
understood.  I  mean  the  avatvirs,  or  manifestations  of  the 
deity  in  human  form.  A  Mohammedan  writer,  who  be- 
lieved in  it  himself,  said  that  "  The  divinity  existed  in 
Adam,  and  was  transmitted  through  him  to  Noah,  and  so 
on,  through  kings  and  great  men  of  different  countries.  Ya- 
rious  countries, — such  as  Egypt,  Hindostan,  and  China, — 
had  their  dynasties  of  kings,  gods,  and  demigods  reigning 
over  these.  The  higher  we  go  in  the  histories  of  nations, 
the  more  we  read  of  the  gods  and  demigods,  or  avaturs 
and  manifestations  of  the  deity."  This,  indeed,  is  the  his- 
tory of  the  gods  of  the  heathen  to  the  time  when  Julius 
Caesar  and  Augustus  were  aspiring  to  be  worshipped,  some- 
times even  during  life.  So  it  was  with  I^ebuchadnezzar, 
and  Darius  of  Persia,  who  required  public  worship  of  their 
people.  This  explains  what  is  meant  by  Yishnu  of  Hin- 
dostan being  the  ninth  avatur,  or  manifestation  of  God. 
He  was  ISToah,  the  ninth  from  Adam  who  received  divin- 
ity from  Adam,  through  a  line  of  patriarchs  and  kings 
before  the  flood.  It  is  easy  thus  to  account  for  the  numer- 
ous Jupiters,  Herculeses,  and  Apolloses  in  pagan  history. 
Strabo  says  there  were  three  hundred  Jupiters  and  forty 
Herculeses  in  his  day  among  the  gods,  all  from  one  of  each 


THE   DISPERSED   IN  ASIA.  267 

name.    No  wonder  that  Ovid  slionld  speak  of  tlie  turha  or 
rabble  of  gods  in  liis  ([&j. 

A  few  remarks  on  China  will  close  this  chapter.  Sir 
William  Jones  says  they  designate  their  comitry  "All  that 
is  nnder  heaven,"  that  is,  "  all  that  is  valuable  on  earth." 
Another  title  taken  to  itself  is  the  "  Celestial  Empire." 
Of  its  first  settlement  difl:erent  opinions  prevail.  Some 
derive  the  first  colonists  from  Tartary,  others  from  India. 
Sir  William  Jones  inclines  to  the  latter.  Others  believe 
them  to  have  come  from  both  countries.  Their  great  Con- 
fucius acknowledges  the  difficulty  of  settling  the  question. 
Their  priests  and  religion  were  certainly  from  India.  Tlieir 
hieroglyphics  were  not  from  Egypt.  They  certainly  had 
a  knowledge  of  the  deluge,  and  believed  in  a  Supreme 
God.  Before  the  time  of  Confucius  they  believed  in  genii 
and  tutelary  gods,  and  offered  victims  and  sacrifices  on 
high  places.  The  morality  of  Confucius  is  certainly  of  a 
higher  order  than  that  of  any  other  pagan  writer.  The 
doctrine  of  forgiveness  of  injuries  is  emphatically  set  forth, 
and  the  practice  enjoined. 

The  following,  on  the  religion  of  China,  is  from  a  recent 
work  by  a  Mr.  Murray : 

"  The  belief  in  an  almighty  superintending  power,  under 
the  name  of  Tien,  Heaven,  or  of  the  great  Shang-ti,  with 
sacrifices  offered  on  certain  high  occasions  in  his  honor, 
comprehends  almost  the  entire  circle  of  orthodox  faith 
and  observance." 

But  the  charge  of  direct  atheism,  which  has  been  brought 
against  the  primitive  religion  of  China,  seems  to  be  with- 
out foundation.  Some  very  unintelligible  speculations 
indeed,  said  to  be  derived  from  the  source  of  the  Y-king, 
refer  to  a  mysterious  principle  or  power  called  Tayki, 
which,  operating  through  certain  active  and  passive  agents 
called  yang  and  yin,  has  given  form  to  the  various  objects 
which  compose  the  universe.     Still,  the  Tien,   or  great 


268  THE    BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

Shang-ti,  always  appears  decidedly  superior  to  the  Tay- 
ki  as  a  being  at  once  moral  and  intelligent. 

Confucius,  who  founded  his  system  upon  reverence  for 
ancient  times,  and  became  himself  the  chief  authority  upon 
which  the  Chinese  sought  to  found  their  belief,  appears  to 
have  trodden  in  the  steps  of  the  early  sages.  We  find 
him  uttering  the  following  sound  maxims:  "Worship  the 
deity  as  though  he  were  present ; "  "  If  my  mind  is  not 
engaged  in  worship,  it  is  as  though  I  worshipped  not  ; " 
"  Offending  against  heaven,  there  is  no  supplication  that 
can  be  acceptable."  Still  he  seems  not  to  have  received 
religion  as  a  principle  of  action,  or  even  as  a  sentiment 
that  ought  to  be  made  very  familiar.  Another  particular 
in  which  the  religion  of  China  contrasts  not  very  favor- 
ably with  the  least  approved  in  the  pagan  world,  consists 
in  the  imperfect  ideas  entertained  resjoecting  the  future 
state.  In  certain  crude  speculations  relating  to  the  nature 
of  mind,  the  souls  of  the  good  are  represented,  after  leav- 
ing the  body,  as  ascending  by  their  native  buoyancy,  and 
mingling  with  the  heavens  from  which  they  came.  The 
rites  performed  in  honor  of  ancestors  are  accompanied 
with  the  belief  that  their  souls  still  exist,  and  are  sensible 
of  the  homage  paid  to  them ;  yet  this  tenet  is  not  held 
forth  as  the  ground  of  hope  or  the  support  of  virtue. 
We  have  not  found  in  the  writings  of  Confucius  any 
thing  contrary  to  the  belief  in  a  future  state,  yet  he  no 
where  inculcates  or  makes  it  the  basis  of  his  precepts. 
The  gloom  which  involved  his  latter  days  was  in  no  de- 
gree cheered  by  those  hopes  of  a  better  world  M'hich, 
even  without  the  aid  of  revelation,  so  brightly  illuminat- 
ed the  closing  scenes  of  the  life  of  Socrates.  Instead  of 
future  retribution,  the  Chinese  moralists  and  legislators 
endeavor  to  support  virtue  by  rewards  and  punishments 
as  administered  by  divine  Providence  in  the  j^resent 
world.     The  religionists,  however,  seem  chiefly  to  have 


THE   DISPERSED   IX   ASIA,  269 

attracted  votaries  by  holding  out  to  tliem  tlie  hope  of 
prolonging  the  short  sj)an  of  life  on  earth  by  conforming 
to  certain  rules,  and  the  application  of  certain  means. 
The  supposed  intercourse  between  the  condition  of  spirits 
and  men,  afforded  to  many  the  comfortable  belief  that  as 
they  had  originally  come  down  from  the  celestial  abodes^ 
they  would,  after  death,  reascend,  and  occupy  a  more 
conspicuous  station.  But  to  princes  and  great  men  these 
sectaries  recommended  themselves  chiefly,  by  the  wild 
and  delusive  hope  of  an  earthly  immortality,  for  to 
those  who  possessed  every  good  that  this  world  could  be- 
stow,  its  perpetual  duration  was  of  all  boons  the  most 
desirable,  That  there  existed  somewhere  on  earth  a 
fountain  possessed  of  this  marvellous  and  fabled  virtue, 
was  a  doctrine  always  held  by  this  visionary  sect.  In 
one  account  it  is  said,  "  On  the  summit  of  a  mountain 
is  a  garden,  where  a  soft  zephyr  blows  without  ceasing, 
and  asfitates  the  leaves  of  the  beautiful  Tons:  trees  bv 
which  it  is  surrounded.  Tliis  enchanted  garden  is  placed 
near  to  the  closed  gate  of  heaven :  its  waters  are  the  yel- 
low fountain  which  is  very  sweet  and  most  abundant ;  it 
is  called  the  Fountain  of  Immortality.  Those  who  drink 
of  it  never  die."  Elsewhere  it  is  said,  "  Life  came  from 
it,  and  it  is  the  road  to  heaven." 

In  conclusion,  we  say,  that  if  before  the  time  of  Con- 
fucius the  Chinese  believed  in  genii  and  tutelary  deities, 
we  shall  see  in  the  appendix  that  after  his  time  they  wor- 
shipped the  manes  or  spirits  of  the  deceased,  and  made 
gods  of  them,  Confucius  himself  being  the  chief  of  them. 


270  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 


APPENDIX. 

In  tlie  preceding  chapter  we  have  chiefly  dwelt  on  the 
earliest  traditionary  religions  of  the  Asiatics,  especially 
of  the  Hindoo  and  Chinese  systems.  But  to  do  justice 
to  this  part  of  our  subject  we  must  refer  to  changes  tak- 
ing place  in  the  same,  under  reformers,  philosophers,  and 
priests,  as  was  the  case  in  all  countries.  Professor  Hard- 
wic  has  devoted  a  large  part  of  his  learned  work  to  the 
later  developments  of  the  Asiatic  systems.  He  admits 
the  very  early  existence  of  systems  which  were  at  least 
the  foundations  or  beginnings  of  Brahminism  and  Budd- 
hism, which  have  so  long  prevailed  over  all  Asia  as  well 
as  elsewhere.  He  traces  them  to  a  period  anterior  to  the 
Mosaic  dispensation,  and  thereby  admits  the  probability 
of  what  we  have  said  as  to  religious  divisions,  even  be- 
fore the  dispersion  from  Babel.  We  give,  in  brief,-  the 
substance  of  this  learned  wi'iter's  investigations. 

The  most  ancient  and  authoritative  of  the  Hindoo 
sacred  books  are  the  Vedas.  The  Rig-Yeda  is  the  most 
prominent  of  them,  and  contains  more  than  a  thousand  of 
their  canticles  and  prayers.  "We  find  nothing  in  them 
of  a  trinity  or  triad  of  gods.  The  doctrine  of  one  great 
First  Cause  was  not  absolutely  banished  from  the  hearts 
of  bards  and  rishis.  But  the  idea  of  one  God,  supreme 
and  spiritual,  never  formed  a  prominent  article  in  the 
early  creeds  of  India.  "It  retired  far  off  into  the  back- 
ground. It  seldom  operated  as  the  principle  of  life.  It 
was  the  feeble  and  expiring  echo  of  an  elder  and  purer 
revelation."  And  even  when  they  uttered  this  echo,  the 
great  being  was  rather  "  a  nature  god,  than  the  god  of 
nature."  He  was  not  "  a  personal,  self-conscious  being, 
ruling  over  nature  as  his  works."  "  It  bordered  on  pan- 
theism, often  passing  quite  over  the  border."    The  Hindoo 


THK    DISPERSED    IN   ASIA.  271 

deified  tlie  elements,  and  even  in  tlie  oflerings  and  sacri- 
fices wliieli  lie  presented,  lie  worsliijjped  the  deity  as 
present  in  tliein,  as  some  among  ns  worship  the  Saviour 
as  present  in  the  bread  and  wine  of  the  sacrament.  When 
he  ofl'ers  a  sacrifice,  he  invites  his  favorite  god,  and  the 
winds  and  fire,  to  come  down  and  taste  of  his  abundance, 
while  the  great  God  of  nature  appears  to  be  overlooked. 
Such,  in  truth,  was  the  case  of  all  the  pagan  worship. 
It  was  lavished  on  the  inferior  deities  as  being  nearer  to 
men.  As  to  the  spirit  and  the  objects  of  the  Hindoo 
prayers,  "  we  look  in  vain  for  penitential  psalms  or 
hymns,  commemorating  the  descent  of  spiritual  benefits." 
Their  prayers  to  the  gods  are  nearly  all  for  some  temporal 
prosperity,  as  in  Greece  and  Rome  and  all  other  pagan 
lands.  As  an  exception,  one  is  given  in  a  Yeda  which 
reads  thus :  "  Come,  thou  giver  of  life,  and  relieve  us, 
prudent  king,  from  our  oftences  ;"  and  pleads  the  eflicacy 
of  their  invocations  and  sacrifices.  "  Ye  ask  and  receive 
not,  because  ye  ask  amiss,  to  consume  it  on  your  lusts  ;" 
describes  the  character  of  jDagan  petitions. 

As  to  the  unity  of  the  Hindoo  god,  it  consisted  in  all 
other  forms  of  existence  being  traced  up  to  him  as  their 
head,  and  are  only  rays  of  his  glory.  "The  best  concep- 
tion of  the  Supreme  Being  in  the  highest  systems  of 
Hindoo  philosophy,"  says  Ilardwic,  "  are  one-sided  and 
imperfect." 

"  Their  belief  in  one  God,"  says  Rammohun  Roy,  as 
quoted  by  Professor  Wilson,  "  was  held  in  consistency 
with  the  belief  of  innumerable  gods  and  goddesses,  who 
possess  in  their  several  departments  full  and  independent 
power.  To  propitiate  them,  and  not  the  true  God,  tem- 
ples are  erected  and  ceremonies  performed." 

The  Brahmin  philosophy  saw  production  and  destruc- 
tion and  reproduction  throughout  all  nature  ;  and  these 
were  adored  as  three  deities,  and  constituted  the  triad  of 


272  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

I 

India.  As  to  the  elder  Bralim  or  Bralima,  from  whom 
Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva  came,  he  was  so  far  removed 
from  finite,  sinful  beings,  that  no  temj)le  was  erected  or 
victim  oiiered  to  his  honor ;  nor  did  the  personified  Brahma, 
first  of  the  three  emanations,  ever  attract  much  popular 
favor.  He,  too,  was  a  god  afar  ofl:\  The  Hindoos  offer  sacri- 
fices, not  to  God,  but  to  the  gods,  and  the  worshipper  and 
the  worshipped  differ  only  in  degree,  both  being  creatures, 
and  both  deriving  nourishment  from  the  offering.  Their 
sin-offering  was  an  animal  slaughtered  and  burnt,  and  was 
the  chief  sacrifice.  This  was  offered  to  tlie  whole  group 
of  Devas  or  gods,  and  perhaps  in  them  to  the  Supreme 
Intelligence.  It  was  held  that  "  the  worshipper  who 
offered  up  an  animal,  duly  consecrated,  is  able  thereby  to 
buy  ofif  all  the  deities  at  once." 

As  to  the  fall  of  man,  Mr.  Ilardwic,  ever  cautious  in 
admitting  proofs  of  a  connection  between  pagan  traditions 
and  scripture  revelation,  admits  that  here,  as  everywhere 
else  that  human  steps  have  wandered,  there  are  dim  tra- 
ditions of  the  fall  of  man,  and  distant  echoes  of  some 
promise  of  redemption,  though  they  have  been  exagger- 
ated by  some.  Their  idea  of  sin  is  indeed  inconsistent  with 
that  of  the  Mosaic  account.  Their  philosophical  system 
holds  that  man  is  an  emanation  of  Brahma,  and  is  not 
chargeable  with  sin — that  Brahma,  who  made  him,  is 
guilty.  "  Even  to  this  day,  the  missionary,  when  speak- 
ing of  righteousness  and  judgment  to  come,  is  sometimes 
met  with  the  answer,  I  have  neither  sin  nor  guilt,  for 
everything  is  wrought  in  me  by  Brahma."  Such  is  also 
the  doctrine  of  the  Buddhist,  who  denies  emphatically 
that  the  origin  of  evil  is  ascribable  to  any  cause  except 
"  the  mischievous  and  corrupting  temper  of  man,"  received 
by  emanation  from  Brahma ;  but  in  the  creed  of  popular 
Brahminism,  the  sin  of  our  first  parents  was  traced  up 
direct  to  the  guilt  and  malice  of  a  tempter,  not  within  us 


THE   DISPERSED   IN  ASIA.  273 

but  witlioiit  US.  That  tempter  was,  in  form  at  least,  a 
serpent.  The  Hindoo  legends,  also,  which  go  back  to  the 
early  ages,  very  much  resemble  the  account  we  have  in 
the  golden  age  of  other  nations,  and  remind  us  of  man 
in  paradise.  The  philosophical  systems,  however,  super- 
seded and  did  away  with  them  all. 

As  to  the  method  of  recovering  from  the  fall,  the  philo- 
sophic Buddhists  "  make  ritual  punctuality  moral  merit." 
"  They  lay  the  emphasis  on  repetition  of  texts — invocation 
of  a  host  of  deities — obedience  to  parents — and  mercy  to 
lower  animals."  The  Deva  or  god  who  amiounces  the 
coming  destruction,  tells  how  it  may  be  avoided :  "  Let 
him  assist  his  parents,  respect  his  superiors,  avoid  the  live 
sins,  and  observe  the  five  obligations."  The  idea  of  an 
atonement  or  substitution  had  been  departing  more  and 
more  from  the  Hindoo  mind  for  a  long  time.  In  place  of 
this,  rigorous  penances  and  daily  sacrifices  had  been  gain- 
ing ground,  until  bodily  tortures,  instead  of  penitential 
exercises  and  works  of  charity,  made  up  their  religion. 

As  to  their  avaturs,  or  descents  of  their  gods,  their  philo- 
sophic systems  turned  the  ancient  legends  into  innumer- 
able incarnations.  Any  one  might  become  a  Buddha,  or 
god,  by  a  certain  process  of  fasting  and  penance  and 
religious  observances.  Still  some  legends  of  the  avatur, 
or  incarnation  of  a  great  god  or  king,  appeared  from  time 
to  time.  One  there  was  which  so  exactly  answered  to 
the  account  of  Christ  in  the  gospels,  that  it  was  suspected 
of  being  copied  from  one  of  them.  Sir  William  Jones, 
on  careful  examination,  became  satisfied  that  it  was  in- 
troduced in  the  first  or  second  century,  when  Christianity 
had,  according  to  Eusebius,  found  its  way  into  India,  and 
modified  and  improved  the  moral  and  religious  system  of 
the  Hindoos.  So  considerable  was  this  change,  that  Mr. 
Belsham,  an  English  infidel,  afiirmed  that  the  gospels  did 
not  teach  a  purer  monotheism  or  unity  of  the  Godhead  than 
18 


274  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

do  the  sacred  books  of  the  Hindoos ;  which  was,  however, 
a  great  exaggeration.  Voltaire  tried  to  prove  the  same, 
by  publishing  an  Eastern  book  full  of  resemblances  to 
the  Christian  religion  ;  but  it  turned  out  to  be  the  fabrica- 
tion of  a  Jesuit  missionary,  who  wished  to  propitiate  a 
learned  class  of  Hindoos  [by  showing  that  to  their  fathers 
were  known  some  truths  of  Christianity.  Concerning  the 
philosophic  systems  of  the  Hindoos,  we  may  perhaps 
say,  they  often  bore  about  the  same  proportion  and  re- 
semblance to  the  ancient  legends,  from  which  they  were 
probably  derived,  as  those  legends  did  to  original  and 
revealed  truth,  from  which  they  were  perverted. 

TKE   RELIGION   OF   CHINA. 

Still  taking  Mr.  Hardwic  for  our  guide,  and  condensing 
his  views,  we  would  say  as  to  the  metaphysical  or  philo- 
sophical religion  of  a  later  period,  as  we  might  say  of 
the  Hindoo  and  other  systems,  that  the  theories  of  some 
of  our  modern  free-thinkers,  who  are  wise  in  their  own 
conceit,  are  "  little  more  than  a  return  to  long  exploded 
errors,  and  a  resuscitation  of  ancient  volcanoes,"  which 
long  since  prevailed  among  the  speculative  religionists  of 
the  East.  The  governing  class  in  China,  we  are  assured, 
have  long  been  familiar  with  the  metaphysics  of  Spinoza. 
They  have  also  carried  out  the  licentious  social  principle 
of  M.  Comte,  on  the  largest  scale.  For  ages  they  have 
been  what  some  people  of  the  present  day  are  wishing 
to  become  in  Europe.  But  we  will  give  a  brief  sketch  of 
the  rise  and  progress  of  their  nation  and  religion.  There 
is  reason  to  believe  that  portions  of  her  present  territory 
were  the  seats  of  thriving  and  fully  organized  communi- 
ties, not  less  than  two  thousand  years  before  the  Christian 
era,  that  is,  about  six  or  seven  hundred  years  after  the 
•deluge,  if  we  take  the  mean  or  average  chronology  of  the 


THE   DISPERSED   IN  ASIA.  275 

different  versions  of  the  Bible.  It  is  true  that  no  authen- 
tic records  survive  later  than  the  sixth  century  before 
Christ ;  but  cups  of  the  Chinese  porcelain  have  been 
found  buried  in  the  ancient  sepulchres  of  Egypt.  Tlie 
whole  empire  seems  to  have  sprung  into  civilization  at 
one  mighty  bound,  and  to  have  grown  into  a  world  of 
itself.  The  Middle  Kingdom,  as  it  is  called,  was  re- 
garded as  the  centre  of  the  universe.  Their  sacred 
writings  were  called  "  The  King,"  or  "  The  Books." 
Although  the  Chinese  believe  in  nothing  supernatural, 
that  is,  in  no  God  who  has  ever  revealed  himself  to  man, 
still  they  believe  that  the  author  of  their  sacred  books 
was  possessed  with  an  unerring  instinct  which  enabled 
him  to  see  into  the  truth  of  all  things.  His  teachings  were 
therefore  infallible.  There  was  also  a  succession  of  sages 
who,  by  hard  study,  gradually  came  to  the  knowledge  of 
truth.  The  first  of  their  body,  the  infallible  author  of 
"The  Books,"  was  named  Fuh-he.  Ancient  tradition  says 
that  he,  with  seven  companions,  escaped  from  a  deluge, 
and  thus  identifies  him  with  Koah.  His  first  book,  called 
"  Yih-Kiug,"  has  much  about  creation.  The  second, 
"  Shoo-King,"  is  more  historical.  The  third  is  "  She- 
King,"  and  has  more  than  three  hundred  moral  odes,  in 
which  are  mournings  over  our  corruption,  and  aspirings 
after  a  better  state. 


CONFTJCIUS,    THE   EEFOKMEE. 

About  the  ninth  century  before  Christ,  and  when 
great  changes  in  the  ancient  religion  and  customs 
had  taken  place,  arose  the  great  Confucius,  who  led 
the  Chinese  back  to  the  ancient  models.  "My  way  of 
teaching,"  he  said,  "  is  simple.  I  cite  the  patterns  left  us 
by  the  ancients."  He  collected  the  ancient  laws  and  tra- 
ditions, and  digested  them  into  a  system.     "  The  system  of 


276  THE*  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

Confucius,"  says  Mr.  Hardwic,  "  ttougli  planted  in  tlie 
twilight  of  the  world's  history,  (about  the  time  of  Aristotle,) 
was  not  perfected  until  the  twelfth  century  of  the  Chris- 
tian era,  when  the  Magna  Charta  was  obtained  in  Eng- 
land.    The  emperor  is  the  centre  and  moving  principle,  or 
main-spring,  of  the  whole.    Heaven  is  present  in  him.    He 
is  the  celestial  potentate, — the  pattern  of  ideal  excellence. 
"  I  am  one  man," — that  is,  the  only  being  of  the  kind. 
He  is  also  the  great  high  priest  of  the  nation  to  offer  the 
highest  sacrifices,  though  there  are  inferior  ones  to  offer 
the  lesser  sacrifices.     The  early  em]3erors  sacrificed  to  the 
hills  and  rivers,  and  the  host  of  heaven.     But  in  these 
most  solemn  exercises  all  is  cold  and  callous.     There  is  no 
consciousness  of  personal  demerit.     It  is  equally  distant 
from  the  penitence  of  the  Hebrew  and  the  Christian,  and 
from  the  asceticism  of  the  Hindoo.    Pride  and  self-compla- 
cency characterize  the  yearly  sacrifice  of  the  emperor. 
The  Chinese  philosophers  afiirm  that  "  Every  man  is,  at  his 
birth,  in  possession  of  a  nature  radically  good."     "  Human 
nature,"  says  a  great  Confucian  authority,  "  is  good,  just 
as  water  has  a  tendency  to  flow  downwards."     "  Water, 
by  beating,  may  be  made  to  splash  over  your  head,  and, 
by  forcing,  may  be  made  to  pass  over  a  mountain ;  but 
who  would  say  that  this  is  the  natural  tendency  of  water  ? " 
This  is  the  result  of  some  unavoidable  connexion  with 
matter,  and  there  is  therefore  no  painful  consciousness  of 
guilt ;  "  and  as  moral  guilt  is  thus  unknown  to  the  disciples 
of  Confucius,  so  neither  does  he  manifest  any  wish  or 
craving  after  spiritual  regeneration.     "  Confucius  never 
refers  to  a  pure  and  righteous  God,  whose  moral   law  is 
broken  by  sin."     The  chief  objects  of  worship  among  the 
followers  of  Confucius  were  the  spirits  or  manes  of  the  de- 
parted.    He  himself  became  the  chief  object.     He  was 
declared  to  be  equal  to  heaven.     The  whole  empire  was 
dotted  over  with  temples  to  him.     Sixty  thousand  animals 


THE   DISPERSED   IN   ASIA*.  277 

were  provided  by  government,  besides  numerous  private 
ones,  to  be  sacrificed  to  bis  manes.  They  allege  as  a  rea- 
son for  worsliipping  tbeir  ancestors,  tliat  tliey  owe  tlieir 
being  to  tbem, — standing  in  tbe  relation  of  a  creature  to 
its  Creator.  They  repair  annually  to  their  graves,  pros- 
trating themselves  on  the  ground,  and  offering  food  to 
their  hungry  sjjirits  ;  for  many  think  that  the  spirits  actu- 
ally receive  nourishment  from  the  subtile  portion  that  is 
carried  to  the  ground,  though  in  one  of  their  books  it  is 
said  the  meaning  is,  "  That  we  ought  always  to  have  the 
dead  before  our  eyes,  and  honor  them  as  if  they  were  still 
living."  Their  parents  were  considered  as  the  chief  min- 
isters of  heaven  to  them.  It  must  be  stated  that  the  wor- 
ship of  China,  compared  with  that  of  many  other  nations, 
is  pure  and  chaste.  Of  late  the  worship  of  virgins  and 
chaste  matrons  has  been  much  on  the  increase. 

As  to  the  belief  in  one  Supreme  Being,  anything  like  our 
God,  there  is  diversity  of  opinion.  Some  Romanists  sought 
to  propitiate  the  Chinese  by  finding  an  identity  between 
the  principles  and  the  god  of  Confucius  and  those  of  Chi-is- 
tians  ;  but  the  Jesuit,  Longobardi,  denies  any  such  affin- 
ity, affirming  that  during  their  whole  historic  period, — 
whatever  may  have  been  in  more  ancient  times, — they 
never  worshipped  a  supreme  spiritual  intelligence  inde- 
pendent of  the  visible  universe.  Mr.  Ilardwic  examines 
this  question  thoroughly,  and  concludes  thus :  "After 
threading  my  way  as  far  as  possible  among  this  tangled, 
and  in  many  points  conflicting  evidence,  I  am  led  to 
the  conclusion  that  in  China,  as  elsewhere,  had  lingered 
from  primeval  ages  the  conception  of  one  living,  bounte- 
ous, and  paternal  Providence,  whose  earthly  shadow  was 
believed  to  sit  exalted  far  above  his  fellows  on  the  throne 
of  the  Middle  Kingdom  ;  but  that,  ultimately,  this  concep- 
tion was  broken  and  obscured  until  the  unity  of  God  no 
longer  .formed  the  basis  of  the  Chinese  creed."   After  this 


278  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

the  philosopliers  took  hold  of  it  and  made  a  god  for  them- 
selves. 

Confucianism,  or  a  rival  sect  of  it  called  "Lao-Tee,"  pre- 
vailed for  five  or  six  centuries  in  China,  but  in  the  first 
century  of  Christianity  Buddhism  made  an  inroad  into  the 
empire,  and  was  attended  with  a  most  rapid  and  entire 
success.  Flattering  the  emperor,  it  obtained  his  patron- 
age so  far  as  to  be  made  a  state  religion,  though  violently 
opposed  by  the  followers  of  Confucius.  This  Chinese 
Buddhism  is  usually  called  Fohism,  which  is  only  another 
name  for  Buddhism. 


THE   MED0-PEE8IAN   SYSTEM. 

Though  this  is  one  of  the  religions  of  Lidia,  yet,  as  we 
have  had  occasion  to  notice  it  in  other  places,  we  shall 
make  but  brief  mention  of  it  here.  As  to  its  birthj)lace, 
or  the  birthplace  of  the  nation,  the  learned  difier;  and 
Ave  shall  not  undertake  to  discuss  the  question.  The  estab- 
lishment of  anything  like  a  Medo-Persian  empire  was  long 
anterior  to  some  others.  The  fact  of  its  proximity  to  the 
birthplace  of  the  human  family,  and  to  the  mountain  of  the 
ark  from  whence  the  world  was  renewed,  and  of  its  being 
the  country  whence  wise  men  were  led  by  the  guiding  of 
a  star  to  welcome  the  Saviour  into  the  world,  must  ever 
give  it  a  peculiar  interest  to  the  Christian.  Here  did 
Cyrus,  the  friend  and  patron  of  Daniel,  the  prophet  and 
historian  of  the  Lord,  reign.  Here  also  did  Darius, 
another  friend  and  patron  of  Daniel,  hold  his  court.  Here, 
on  the  great  rock  of  Behistan,  hundreds  of  feet  in  the  air, 
is  engraven  the  history  of  this  Darius,  corresponding 
with  that  in  the  book  of  Daniel.^''     From  the  seat  of  this 

*  The  following  is  part  of  an  inscription  now  to  be  seen  on  the  tomb  of  Da- 
rius, a  few  miles  north  of  Persepolis,  the  seat  of  his  empire.  It  is  translated 
from  the  cuneiform  characters  of  Persia  by  Sir  Henry  Rawliason.     "The  great 


THE   DISPERSED   IN  ASIA.  279 

empire  issued  decrees  from  both  of  these  sovereigns,  tliat 
in  every  province  of  tlieir  kingdom  the  God  of  Daniel 
should  be  worshipped.  Ancient  legends  there  are  belong- 
ing to  this  country,  which  seem  to  some  to  speak  of  a  per- 
sonal god,  called  "  Time  without  bounds,"  or  "  Uncre- 
ated Time,"  wliom  philosophy  afterwards  styled  the  "  Uni- 
versal Being,"  regarding  him  as  the  personification  of 
eternity,  and  the  basis  of  all  beings.  "  We  are  at  liberty 
to  argue,"  says  Ilardwic,  "  that  faint  glimmerings  of  one 
only  God, — inert  indeed,  if  not  impersonal, — but  still  the 
primal  cause  of  all  things,  are  discernible  here  and  there 
in  the  remains  of  Medo-Persian  heathenism."  Ormazd  the 
Good  shines  gloriously  and  inestimably  above  all  that 
were  called  gods.  By  common  consent,  whatever  may 
have  been  the  source  of  it,  whether  greater  intercourse 
with  the  Hebrews,  or  primeval  revelation  handed  down 
by  tradition,  sounder  views  of  God  and  religion  prevailed 
in  Persia  than  elsewhere.  Of  the  primitive  state  of  man, 
his  fall  by  the  temptation  of  the  evil  one  in  the  form  of  a 
serpent,  as  held  in  ancient  Persia,  we  have  already  spoken, 
and  shall  not  needlessly  enlarge  this  supplement  by  adduc- 
ing more  of  the  many  testimonies  which  might  be  furnished, 

god,  Ormazd, — he  gave  this  earth;  he  gave  that  heaven  ;  he  gave  mankind;  he 
made  Darius  king.  Says  Darius  the  king, — Ormazd,  when  he  saw  that  the  world 
was  heretical,  (or  rebellious,)  he  rendered  it  subject  to  my  power.  By  the  graca 
of  Ormazd,  I  have  reformed  it  completely.  Says  Darius  the  king, — that  which 
has  been  done,  all  of  it  I  have  accomplished  by  the  grace  of  Ormazd.  0  people ! 
the  law  of  Ormazd, — that  having  returned  to  you,  let  it  not  perish.  Beware,  lest 
ye  abandon  the  true  doctrine."  Other  inscriptions  there  are,  which  have  not 
yet  been  deciphered. 

To  this  we  add  the  following.  Among  the  many  interesting  proofs  of  the  accu- 
racy of  scripture  history,  (after  having  been  questioned,)  which  are  furnished 
by  the  recent  discoveries,  we  notice  the  following  from  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson. 
The  apparent  contradiction  between  Daniel  and  Berosus  is  completely  reconciled. 
"  Berosus  states  that  Nabonidus,  after  being  defeated  by  Cyrus,  shut  himself  up 
in  the  city  of  Borsippa,  and  there  surrendered  himself  to  Cyrus."'  Sir  H.  Raw- 
linson reconciles  these  discrepancies  from  the  cylinders,  (ancient  records,) 
which  distinctly  state  that  Belshazzar  was  the  eldest  son  of  Nabonuhts,  and  that 
he  was  governor  of  Babylon  (and  was  there  slain)  when  Cyrus  took  Nabonidus. 


CHAPTEE  XIX. 

THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    DISPERSED    IN    EUROPE. 

The  isles  of  the  Gentiles,  tliat  is,  tlie  islands  in  the 
Mediterranean  and  ^gean  seas,  appear  to  have  been 
assigned  to  the  descendants  of  Japheth,  and  to  have  been 
taken  possession  of  at  an  early  period  by  them.  But  it 
does  not  appear  that  the  continent  of  Europe  was  all  in- 
cluded in  the  grant,  and  that  they  were  restricted  to  that 
quarter  of  the  globe,  for  in  the  prophecy  of  JSToah  it  is 
said,  "  God  shall  enlarge  Japheth,  and  he  shall  dwell  in 
the  tents  of  Shem."  This  was  fulfilled  in  the  extension 
of  Shem's  descendants  into  the  Korth  of  Asia,  into  Siberia 
and  Tartary,  and  also  a  part  of  China,  as  it  is  supposed 
by  some.  These  were  regions  adjoining  those  of  Eastern 
Asia,  which  were  assigned  to  Shem.  The  Canaanites 
were  to  be  subject  to  both  Shem  and  Japheth,  which  was 
fulfilled  w^hen  the  Israelites  took  possession  of  Canaan, 
making  many  of  the  inhabitants  slaves,  and  selling  many 
of  them  to  the  isles  of  the  Gentiles ;  and  also  when  the 
Gauls  and  Eomans  conquered  Carthage  and  Tyre,  which 
were  colonies  from  Canaan.  When  Carthage  was  about 
to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Komans,  Hannibal  is  said  to 
have  uttered  these  words,  "Agnosco  fortunam  Cartha- 
ginis," — in  which  it  is  supposed  he  referred  to  the  past 
life  of  the  wicked  people,  the  Canaanites,  who  colonized 
Carthage,  and  perhaps  to  some  prophecy  concerning  it. 

There  are  those  (among  them  Bishop   Newton)  who 


THE  DISPEESED   IN  EUROPE.  281 

tliink  that  the  words  "  He  shall  dwell  in  the  tents  of 
Slieni,"  should  be  understood  as  referring  not  to  Japheth, 
but  to  God's  dwelling  in  the  tents  of  Shem  when  he  so 
blessed  him  by  his  presence  with  the  Shekinah  of  the 
ark,  and  by  his  choosing  that  country  for  his  appearance 
in  the  flesh. 

Japheth  was  a  highly-favored  branch,  since  from  him 
sprung  the  two  greatest  empires  of  the  world, — the  Gre- 
cian or  Macedonian,  and  the  Roman,  in  which  the  arts 
and  learning  were  carried  to  the  highest  degree  of  perfec- 
tion. The  descendants  of  Japheth  also  extended  their 
settlements  into  the  North  of  Europe,  occupying  all  that 
country  now  constituting  France,  Germany,  and  Austria. 
But  it  is  to  be  noted  that,  as  they  penetrated  into  North- 
ern Asia  and  dwelt  in  the  tents  of  Shem,  so  the  descend- 
ants of  Ham  soon  passed  over  from  Asia  Minor  and  colo- 
nized various  parts  of  Greece ;  took  the  lead  in  arms,  and 
architecture,  and  the  priesthood;  and  not  only  mingled 
with  the  descendants  of  Japheth  in  the  countries  and 
islands  of  Greece  and  Italy  bordering  on  the  Mediterra- 
nean, but,  it  is  believed,  almost  monopolized  the  northern 
part,  being  the  Gauls,  the  Celts,  the  Germans,  and  Sax- 
ons ;  and  in  that  way  became  the  ancestors  of  the  English, 
the  Scotch,  and  the  Irish.  It  is  certain  that  they  introduced 
the  religion  and  priesthood  of  the  Druids,  whicli  once 
prevailed  all  over  tlie  North  of  Europe  and  the  British 
Isles.  The  identity  of  the  Druidical  system  and  that  es- 
tablished by  the  descendants  of  Ham  in  Assyria  and  In- 
dia, cannot  be  questioned.  It  is  believed  that  some  of  the 
descendants  of  Ham,  probably  the  shepherd  kings,  when 
driven  out  of  Egypt,  came  over  and  settled  in  Greece, 
bringing  with  them  something  of  the  Egyptian  religion 
and  literature.  Such  being  the  case,  it  is  impossible  to 
distinguish  between  the  descendants  of  the  two  brothers, 
as  they  were  probably  in  after  times  much  blended  to- 


282  THE  BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

gether.  As  to  those  of  Ham,  through  the  line  of  Cnsh 
and  ISTimrod,  we  know  only  that  Nimrod  was  a  mighty 
hunter,  deeply  engaged  in  the  daring  enterprise  at  Babel ; 
but  that  his  descendants,  in  the  various  countries  into 
which  they  were  scattered,  have  been  fierce  in  war  and 
religion, — have  been  the  soldiers  and  priests,  and  thus 
the  leaders.  Homer,  in  his  "  Odyssey,"  speaks  of  Nimrod 
under  the  name  of  Orion,  as  a  man  of  gigantic  make,  and 
always  in  pursuit  of  wild  beasts.  The  Greeks  called  him 
Nebrod.  Many  places  were  called  after  him.  He  was 
worshipped  under  the  title  of  Belus,  at  the  great  temple 
of  Babylon,  which  was  finished  by  one  of  the  Ninuses 
some  time  after  the  confusion  and  dispersion. 

The  Greeks  and  their  religion  had  more  of  the  ferocious 
about  them  than  most  other  nations.  This  is  ascribed  in 
a  great  measure  to  the  large  intermixture  of  Nimrodism 
in  that  country.  Originally  tliey  were  called  Javanites, 
after  Javau,  one  of  the  sons  of  Japheth,  who  first  settled 
in  Greece.  We  know  but  little  of  the  first  state  of  Greece 
but  suppose  that  a  purer  form  of  religion  there  prevailed 
than  when  the  descendants  of  Ham  intermixed  with  them, 
introducing  more  of  the  worship  of  the  sun  and  other  ob- 
jects of  nature,  or  after  Homer  and  Hesiod  had  mingled 
so  many  deities  with  their  theology.  The  general  name 
of  the  deity  among  the  Greeks  was  Theoth  or  Theos, 
which  we  translate  Theism  or  Deism.  Another  name  was 
that  used  by  our  Lord  on  the  cross, — El,  or  Eli,  or  Eloi, 
a  name  adopted  in  other  countries.  It  is  admitted,  how- 
ever, that  the  early  inhabitants  of  Greece  afterwards  de- 
generated and  became  barbarous.  After  a  time,  they  and 
the  nations  of  the  East  bestowed  the  name  of  barbarians 
upon  each  other,  and  used  them  very  freely  and  not 
without  efii'ect.  As  to  the  early  Greeks,  Plato  says,  "They 
brought  a  mist  upon  learning,  so  that  it  was  impossible  to 
discover  truth  from  them ;"  therefore  he  sought  information 


THE   DISPERSED   IN  EUROPE.  283 

elsewhere,  even  from  the  East,  from  whence  it  was  liter- 
ally true,  as  in  the  time  of  our  Lord,  "  The  wise  men 
came  from  the  East."  Plato  says  the  most  genuine  helps 
to  philosophy  came  from  those  whom  the  Greeks  called 
barbarians.'"  Athenagoras  says  that  "  Homer  and  Hesiod 
(who  lived  about  four  hundred  years  before  him)  first 
formed  the  theology  of  the  Greeks,  and  gave  names  to 
their  deities.  Until  that  time  there  had  been  no  repre- 
sentations of  the  gods,  either  in  painting  or  sculpture." 
All  the  gods  of  Greece,  says  one,  were  originally  the  sun. 
"  The  great  heroes  were  translated  to  the  sun,  and  wor- 
shipped with  him."  This  was  probably  the  case  as  soon 
as  the  descendants  of  Ham  settled  there,  for  they  wor- 
shipped the  sun,  and  Ham  with  him.  They  are  called 
Ammoniaxs,  and  Jupiter  Ammon. 

Before  we  pix)ceed  to  mention  some  of  the  early  colo- 
nies of  Greece,  and  the  names  of  their  leaders  and  times, 
we  must  make  one  remark,  which  is  important  to  the 
right  nnderstanding  of  their  history.  When  their  history 
was  written,  it  always  began,  not  with  their  first  settle- 
ment in  the  diflferent  places  colonized,  but  with  their  great 
ancestor  in  the  country  whence  they  came,  and  with  some 
events  in  his  history. 

Hence  it  is  that  they  declare  that  their  first  king  was 
the  monarch  of  the  whole  earth,  or  of  a  large  p>art  of  it ; 
which  was  true  of  Noah,  Ham,  I^^imrod,  etc.,  who  were 
called  by  different  names,  according  to  their  dialects  or 
languages. 

The  Greeks  were  sometimes  called  lonians,  and  were 
supposed  to  be  a  colony  from  Babylon  after  the  dis- 
persion. Plutarch  says,  "  They  were  the  first  who  led 
mankind  into  idolatry,  by   introducing  the  enn,  moon, 

*  Lord  Bacon  says  that  the  Greek  fables  "  appear  like  a  soft  whisper  from 
the  traditions  of  more  ancient  nations,  conveyed  through  the  flutes  of  the 
Grecians." 


284  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

and  all  tlie  stars  as  deities."  Antioclms  says,  "They  had 
been  instructed  by  Joannes,  one  of  the  giant  race, — 
the  same  person  who,  with  his  associates,  bnilt  the  tower ; 
and  who,  together  with  them,  was  punished  by  a  confu- 
sion of  speech."  Sometimes  they  were  called  Hellenes, 
which  was  the  same  with  the  lonians. 

Tlie  Greeks,  or  a  colony  of  them,  were  sometimes  called 
Argives,  from  the  ark  or  ship  Argos  or  Argha,  thus 
tracing  themselves  to  N^oah,  Sometimes  they  were  called 
Pelasgi,  from  Pelasgus,  another  name  for  JSToah  or  Deu- 
calion. In  one  of  the  ancient  hymns  of  Orpheus  we 
have  this  descrij)tion : 

"  On  a  high  mountain  brow 
The  gloomy  cave  gave  back  to  light 
Godlike  Pelasgus,  that  the  race  of  man 
Through  him  might  be  renewed." 

Another  state  of  Greece  was  that  of  the  Spartans  or 
Sparti — a  word  which  signifies  "  scattered  abroad."  They 
are  supposed  to  have  come  into  Beotia  with  Cadmus, 
when  he  migrated  to  Thebes  with  the  people  of  tlie  dis- 
persion, ^schylus  describes  them  as  the  posterity  of 
those  "whom  the  chance  of  war  had  spared,  and  who 
were  scattered  abroad."  The  term  Titans  or  Titanians,  or 
wanderers,  was  given  to  them.  The  great  object  of  build- 
ing the  tower  was,  "  lest  we  be  scattered  abroad  ;"  hence, 
those  who  went  abroad  from  Babel  were  called  wanderers. 
The  wars  of  the  Titans  were  the  wars  of  these  wanderers 
seizing  on  the  inheritance  of  others.  They  were  called 
"  the  giants,"  "the  warlike."  Sometimes  they  were  called 
the  Heliadse,  or  the  offs2:»ring  of  the  sun, — 'that  is,  of  Noah 
and  of  Ham.  The  Meropes  were  another  tribe  or  nation 
of  ancient  Greece.  The  author  of  the  "  Chronicon  Pas- 
chale  "  says,  "  That  the  Meropes  were  originally  concerned 


THE   DISPERSED   IN"  EUROPE.  285 

in  building  the  tower  of  Babel,  and  were  prevented  by 
the  confusion  of  their  speech.  On  this  account  they 
had  then*  name  of  Meropes,  because  their  speech  was  di- 
vided." Meropes  was  of  the  giant  breed,  and  supposed 
to  be  the  same  with  one  of  the  Heraclidse.  Pindar  also 
speaks  of  the  Deity  ruining  the  Meropes — with  their  great 
and  warlike  monarch.  The  city  of  Ti-oy,  also,  is  spoken 
of  as  the  city  of  the  dispersed. 

The  Colchicans  of  Pontus  were  also  a  superior  race. 
They  worshipped  Prometheus  as  a  god.  The  grounds 
around  his  temple  were  planted  with  trees,  and  covered 
with  pavilions  and  fountains.  It  was  also  called  para- 
dise, or  by  a  name  answering  to  our  paradise. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  all  which  is  said  of  the  race 
of  giants  since  the  flood,  whether  in  scripture  or  in  an- 
cient history  or  poetry,  may  be  traced  to  the  warlike  de- 
scendants of  Ham,  in  the  line  of  the  mighty  Nimrod ;  and 
that  all  the  wonderful  things  in  architecture,  Avhether  in 
Egypt  or  in  Greece,  are  to  be  ascribed  to  the  daring  archi- 
tects of  the  tower  of  Babel.  Poetry  and  romance  have  of 
course  exaggerated  them  beyond  the  bounds  of  credibility. 
Homer  and  Hesiod,  and  even  Yirgil  and  Ovid,  have  con- 
tributed largely  to  the  tradition  of  monsters  in  the  human 
form,  who  never  had  existence  except  in  the  imaginations 
and  fears  of  man.  "VYe  do  not  deny  that  there  was  a 
Goliah  in  the  time  of  David,  and  Anakims  in  the  days 
of  Moses  and  Joshua,  of  large  stature,  but  not  so  large  as 
the  cowardly  spies  represented.  Men  as  large  as  Goliah 
have  lived  since  his  day  ; — even  in  our  land  there  have 
been  monsters  in  size,  with  dwarfs  to  stand  between  tlieir 
legs.  There  have  been  not  only  individuals,  but  families 
and  tribes,  ditfering  greatly  in  size  from  others  of  the 
human  race.  Greece,  ever  given  to  the  fabulous  and  the 
marvellous,  has  made  herself  ridiculous  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world  by  her  extravagancies,  which  deserve  to  be  placed 


286  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

alongside  of  the  "  Arabian  ISTights'  Entertainment,"  and 
of  "  Tom  Thumb  "  and  "  Jack  the  Giant-Killer." 

Some  of  these  are  worthy  of  consideration,  because  of 
their  connection  with  history  and  reh'gion.  A  small  com- 
pany of  the  Titans  or  wanderers  settled  in  Sicily,  and 
established  their  bloody  rites  there,  living  on  plunder. 
But  let  us  see  what  has  been  made  of  it.  These  are  the 
Cyclops,  as  they  were  called,  only  three  in  number. 
Virgil  has  given  an  account  of  one  in  his  cave  : — 

"  Monstrum,  hoiTendum,  informs,  ingens,  cui  lumen  ademptum." 

Here  it  is  that  he  forges  the  lightning  and  thunder  for 
Jupiter.  Virgil  tells  us  that  they  built  the  great  wall 
which,  in  the  lower  regions,  divided  Elysium  from  Tar- 
tarus. 

Homer  makes  Ulysses  visit  one  of  them,  who  seizes  upon 
two  of  his  men  and  makes  a  feast  of  them.     Of  them 

"He  spreads  a  horrid  feast, 
And  fierce  devours  them,  like  a  mountain  beast." 

JSTow  the  true  history  is  this :  The  Cyclopeans  were  re- 
markable for  their  skill  in  architecture,  in  every  country 
where  they  went,  and  were  men  of  great  strength.  They 
builded  great  temples  and  towers,  which  sometimes  an- 
swered for  light-houses  on  the  coast.  They  had  a  round 
window  in  the  upper  part,  like  an  eye,  such  as  are  put  in 
the  gable-ends  of  houses  to  this  day,  and  are  called  "  ox 
eyes,"  from  their  resemblance  to  the  eye  of  an  ox.  Vir- 
gil, speaking  of  Polyhemus,  referring  no  doubt  to  the 
high  towers  he  built,  says, 

"Ipse  arduus,  altaque  pulsat  sidera." 

Of  his  works,  one  of  the  ancients  says, 

"  Oyclopum  sacros 
Turres  labore  majus  humane  decus." 


THE   DISPERSED   IN   EUROPE.  287 

THE  SACKED   TOWEKS   OF   THE   CYCLOPS   THE   GREATEST   WORKS 
OF   HUMAN   ART. 

The  Sclioliast,  on  Statins,  says  of  tlieir  architecture : 
"  Quicquid  magnitiidine  sua,  nobile  est,  Cylopum  manu 
dicitur  fabricatum."  The  secret  of  the  cave  of  the  Cy- 
clops in  Sicily  was  this :  on  a  high  rock,  called  Scilla, 
there  was  a  temple  of  the  Cyclopean  priests,  where  they 
sacrificed  and  devoured  all  the  strangers  who  were 
thrown  upon  that  coast.  Petra  was  the  temple,  and  the 
dogs  surrounding  it  Avere  the  priests ;  and  the  most  agree- 
able repast  to  the  priests  was  the  flesh  of  strangers.  On 
another  part  of  the  island  of  Sicily  were  the  Lestrigonians, 
who  were,  perhaps,  of  the  same  race  and  character  with 
the  Cyclopeans — being  giants  in  wickedness.  Herod- 
otus, in  whose  day  a  story  was  told  of  a  race  with  one 
eye,  literally  rejects  it.  The  Syrens,  of  whom  Homer 
speaks  in  the  "  Odyssey,"  lived  on  the  opposite  coast  of 
Africa,  called  Campania,  and  were  also  of  the  race  of 
Ham,  through  Canaan.  Here,  also,  was  a  great  temple 
in  which  women  officiated,  and  sang  most  enchanting  and 
irresistible  songs,  with  which  to  ensnare  and  charm  the 
travellers  along  the  coast.  Circe,  one  of  them,  says  to 
Ulysses, 

"  Unblest  the  man  whom  music  makes  to  stray 
Near  the  curst  coast  and  listen  to  the  laj'. 
The  ground  polluted  floats  with  human  gore, 
And  human  carnage  taints  the  dreadful  shore. 
Fly!  fly  the  dangerous  coast ! " 

There  was  no  fiction  in  this  description  of  the  blood 
and  gore  which  defiled  the  temples,  in  many  parts  of 
Greece,  where  human  victims  were  sacrificed.  When  an 
ancient  writer  speaks  of  Saturn  himself,  and  Ops,  and 
other  deities  "  devouring  their  own  children,"  it  is  easily 


288  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

understood  by  referring  to  tlie  liuman  victims  wliich  were 
offered  up  to  them  in  the  temples. 

In  the  orgies  of  Bacchus  and  Ceres,  one  part  of  the 
ceremony  was  to  eat  the  flesh  with  the  blood.  In  Crete, 
at  the  Dionusiaca,  they  used  to  tear  the  flesh  from  the 
victim  while  alive.  According  to  Ovid,  most  of  the  tem- 
ples of  old  were  courts  of  justice.  Thus  lie  says  of  the 
goddess  Ceres, 

"  Prima  dedit  leges." 

The  laws  of  Solon  were  engraved  in  one  of  the  temples 
at  Athens.  Proserpine,  with  Minos,  and  Radamanthus, 
were  condemned  to  the  shades  below,  as  infernal  inquisi- 
tors. The  priests  in  the  temple  were  sometimes  called 
Furiae,  wherefore  an  ancient  writer  speaks  of  "  Proserpine 
among  the  furies."  Herodotus  speaks  of  a  Prutanion  in 
Achaia,  from  which  none  ever  returned  who  were  caught 
by  the  priests.  The  Harpies  were  also  a  college  of  priests 
in  Bithynia.  On  account  of  their  cruelty  they  were  driven 
out  of  the  country.  They  were  styled  "  The  Dogs  of  Jove." 
Some  of  the  priests  in  the  ancient  temples,  as  in  one  at 
Megara,  were  celebrated  for  wrestling  and  boxing  with 
the  Ccestus,  and  obtained  victims  by  challenging  and 
even  forcing  strangers  to  the  combat.  We  are  told  that 
this  even  reached  America.  When  the  Spaniards  came 
to  the  Western  world  they  found  a  custom  resembling 
this.  The  person  about  to  be  sacrificed  must  engage  in 
battle  and  be  slain.  The  word  campus  or  campi,  was  the 
space  around  the  temple  where  the  battle  was  fought,  and 
the  combatants  were  called  campio.  We  read  also  of  a 
monster  called  campi,  who  was  said  to  have  fifty  heads  of 
fifty  different  beasts.  This  was  believed  to  be  a  college  ot 
fifty  cruel  priests,  who  lived  on  human  victims.  The  old 
story  of  a  monster  or  dragon  which  covers  fifty  acres,  is 


THE   DISPERSED   IN   EUROPE.  289 

interpreted  to  mean  a  campus  or  enclosure  containing  fifty- 
acres  around  one  of  the  temples. 

We  may,  in  another  way,  account  for  the  marvellous  ex- 
ploits and  travels  and  reformations. ascribed  to  the  hero- 
gods  of  old,  in  Greece  especially.  The  actions  of  a  whole 
tribe  or  colony  are  ascribed  to  the  great  leader  of  the 
same.  In  scripture,  the  tribes  are  called  after  their 
twelve  heads,  as  Judah,  Dan,  Reuben,  etc.,  hundreds  of 
years  after  their  patriarchs  were  dead.  The  actions  of  the 
tribes  were  credited  to  the  individuals.  Wonderful  are 
the  accounts  given  of  the  travels,  conquests,  reformations, 
achievements,  and  instructions  of  Osiris,  Pei'seus,  Dionu- 
sus,  Bacchus,  Hercules,  and  others.  The  journeyings  and 
works  of  these  persons  would  require  hundreds  of  years, 
and  by  many  persons  associated  together,  in  order  to  their 
accomplishment;  and  many  of  these  are  so  much  alike, 
according  to  the  tradition,  that  we  must  suppose  them  to 
be  the  same  characters  under  different  names,  according 
to  the  diversity  of  tongues  after  the  confusion  at  Babel. 
Noah  answers  to  the  description  of  the  leading  ones  ; 
and  his  sons  and  their  children,  especially  Ham  and  Gush 
and  Nimrod,  will  represent  all  the  subsequent  heroes 
which  make  such  a  figure  in  ancient  history  and  raythol- 
og_7.  But  then,  we  must  connect  with  them  the  colonies 
which  they  settled,  in  order  to  j  ustify  these  feats  said  to  have 
been  performed  by  them.  And  as  to  the  accounts  given  of 
the  nuirches  and  conquests  of  Bacchus,  Hercules,  Sesos- 
tris,  Semiramis,  and  others,  we  must  remember  who  were 
the  nations  overrun  and  subdued  by  them.  They  were 
petty  tribes,  under  patriarchs  called  kings,  like  the  nu- 
merous petty  states  "of  Greece  in  their  infancy,  and  some- 
what like  the  petty  tribes  of  Africa  at  this  day.  What 
were  the  kings  occupying  Canaan  in  the  time  of  Abra- 
ham, when  with  his  three  hundred  servants  he  overcame 
so  many ;  or  in  the  time  of  Joshua,  when  Adonibezek  had 
19 


290  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS, 

more  than  eighty  at  one  time,  captives  and  mutilated, 
Nimrod  may  have  been  a  mighty  hunter,  like  some  great 
chieftain  in  our  American  forests,  because  there  were  so 
many  wild  beasts  in  the  uncleared  lands  of  the  East,  and 
of  course  a  sparse  population  of  human  beings,  as  is  al- 
ways the  case  with  the  savage  oi'  hunting  state  of  man. 
Europe,    with   its   numerous  British    and    Mediterranean 
and  -^gean  isles,  and  immense  sea-coast,  was,  of  all  the 
quarters  of  the  globe,  most  favorable  for  multiplied  colo- 
nies and  independent  states,  and  pirates  and  robbers,  which 
would  furnish  material  for  extravagant  fiction  and  wilder 
poetry.     Plerodotus  tells  us  that,  even  in  his  time,  in  one 
tract  along  the  Hellespont  and  Euxine,  there  were  thirty 
different  nations.     To  this  let  it  be  added,  that  learned 
men  believe  some  of  the  great  heroes  of  the  early  times 
to  have  been  religious  leadei's  who  made  wars  against 
opposing  sects.     The  descendants  of  Ilam, — the  Titans, 
the  worshippers  of  the  sun, — and  of  Ham  or  Jupiter  Am- 
mon,  were  especially  zealous  for  their  own,  and  intolerant 
of  others.     One  of  these  nunierous  heroes,  going  by  the 
name   of   Hercules,  signalized  himself   by   waging  war 
against  the  descendants  of  Japheth,  (wlio  were  the  Arkites 
of  their  time,)  and  with  his  followers  made  conquests  in 
the  Mediterranean,  even  in  the  British  isles,  establishing 
the  worship  of  Ammon. 

The  history  of  the  Northern  tribes  of  Europe,  both 
civil  and  religious,  is  less  known,  by  reason  of  their  inte- 
rior position  and  remoteness  from  the  Mediterranean. 
We  have  already  said  that  the  Cusliites  or  Scythians 
gradually  encroached  upon  the  Javanites,  the  descendants 
of  Japheth,  and  if  they  did  not  drive  them  out  of  that 
region,  yet  became  the  nobles  and  priests,  and  established 
the  Druidical  worship — the  same  with  the  Buddhism  of 
India,  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  and  all  the  islands 
which  cluster  around  them,  were  brought  under  the  Dru- 


THE   DISPERSED   IN   EUROPE.  291 

idical  faitli  and  worship.  We  have  ah-eady  quoted  from 
then*  wikl  poems  concerning  the  dehige,  and  Woden,  and 
Ceridwen.  Even  to  the  days  of  Ossian  there  has  been  a 
succession  of  romantic  Druidical  poets,  whose  works  have 
been  read  with  interest  by  the  literati  and  the  religious. 
With  all  their  extravagance,  they  bear  good  testimony  to 
the  Bible  history.  Of  their  temples,  towers,  caverns, 
cromlechs,  and  mounds,  we  have  already  spoken.  Of  the 
philosophic  religions  of  Europe  we  shall  say  nothing 
now,  as  these  will  come  under  consideration  when  we 
treat  of  the  philosophers  in  a  subsequent  chapter. 


CHAPTEE  XX. 

ON    THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    DISPERSED    IN    AFRICA. 

We  come  now  to  wliat  is  often  called  "  Degraded  Afri- 
ca." Many  think  that  the  malediction  of  Noah  on  Canaan 
the  son  of  Ham,  for  the  irreverence  shown  by  the  father 
towards  Noah,  was  designed  to  entail  degradation  and 
slavery  on  the  descendants  of  Ham,  in  Africa.  Others 
can  see  nothing  but  a  prophecy  of  judgment  on  Canaan, 
which  was  fullilled  in  the  destruction,  or  caj)tivity  or  ban- 
ishment of  the  wicked  Canaanites ;  and  therefore  sup- 
pose that  Canaan  must  have  participated  at  least  in  the 
father's  irreverence. 

Traditions  and  conjectures  have  ever  abounded  among 
the  Jewish  rabbis  and  Christian  fathers  on  this  subject. 
We  shall  not  enter  on  the  discussion.  Certain  it  is  that 
all  the  descendants  of  Ham  were  not  visited  with  servi- 
tude on  account  of  their  father's  sin.  Cush,  one  of  the 
sons  of  Ham,  Nimrod's  grandfather,  laid  the  foundation 
of  two  mighty  empires,  Assyrian  and  Medo-Persian ;  to 
say  nothing  of  the  Senthian  or  Scythian,  which  preceded 
them.  Their  descendants  were,  and  are  to  this  day,  the 
masters  of  the  world, — for  the  English,  French,  German, 
and  Prussian,  besides  the  inhabitants  of  the  United  States, 
are  descended  from  them. 

A  large  portion  of  South  and  Middle  Africa — that  sup- 
posed to  be  settled  by  Phut,  one  of  the  sons  of  Ham — has 
indeed  ever  been  the  seat  of  the  slave-trade ;  but  so  have 


THE   DISPERSED   iN   AFRICA.  293 

other  parts  of  Europe  and  Asia,  as  all  history  testifies. 
The  slave-markets  on  the  Mediterranean  were  supplied 
with  captives,  taken  in  war  and  piracy,  from  all  quarters 
of  the  ancient  world,  which  were  settled  by  the  descend- 
ants from  all  the  sons  of  ]!^oah.  Even  in  Scythia  slaves 
so  abounded,  that  on  one  occasion  they  rose  in  rebellion 
against  their  masters.  "  For  a  time,"  says  Herodotus, 
"  they  fought  them  with  swords  and  spears,  and  sought 
to  subdue  them,  but  found  it  hard  ;  when  one  said, 
'While  we  thus  fight  them,  they  think  themselves  our 
equals ;  let  us  lay  aside  the  sword  and  use  whips,  as  their 
masters.'  This  was  successful."  A  rather  improbable 
story,  however,  like  some  others  told  by  Herodotus. 

Those  from  Africa  were  sometimes  preferred  as  slaves, 
by  the  rich  and  great  of  Greece  and  Italy,  to  those  of  any 
other  country.  If  they  were  the  same  amiable  race  as  at 
present,  this  is  not  to  be  wondered  at.  Still,  in  the  time 
of  Horace  there  was  a  reproach  resting  on  them,  whether 
for  their  color,  their  state  of  slavery,  or  some  other 
cause,  I  know  not. 

"  Absentem  qui  rodit  amicum 
Aut  non  defendit  alio  culpante 
Hie  niger  est ;  Hunc  tu  Romane  caveto." 

One  thing  is  certain,  that  they  were  not  ashamed  of  their 
color,  for  the  great  statue  of  Memnon  in  Egypt,  supposed 
to  be  the  same  with  Buddha  in  Hindostan,  is  very  large 
and  very  black.  'Not  only  this,  but  in  Hindostan  the 
statue  of  Euddlia  is  more  frequently  black  than  of  any 
other  color,  though  it  is  to  be  found  of  all  the  shades 
of  color  among  men  ;  thus  showing  the  universality  of 
Buddhism  in  the  ancient  world.  It  certainly  once  pre- 
vailed through  Africa,  though  not  at  its  first  settlement. 
Misraim,  the  son  of  Ham,  settled  in  Egypt,  and  brought 
with  him,  no  doubt,  a  purer  form  of  the  religion  of  Noah. 


294  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

Pliut,  it  is  tlioiiglit,  settled  in  wliat  was  called  Ethiopia 
and  Abyssinia,  though  some  think  that  he  afterwards  re- 
moved to  Hindostan,  and  became  the  Buddha  of  that 
comitry.  Misraim  was  worshipped  under  the  name  of 
Ethiops,  and  was  supposed  by  some  to  have  been  the 
first  king  and  god  of  Egypt,  from  which  name  Ethiopia 
was  derived. 

But  this  first  form  of  religion  was  afterwards  changed 
by  the  incursion  of  the  shepherd  kings  from  Asia — the 
descendants  of  Ham,  through  the  line  of  Cush  and  Nim- 
rod — who  overran  Egypt,  and  assimilated  the  religious 
worship  and  gods  more  to  the  pattern  of  those  at  Babylon. 
Herodotus  and  Manetho  tell  us  of  two  descents  upon 
Egypt  by  the  shepherd  kings,  who  drove  out  numbers  of 
the  inhabitants,  and  enslaved  the  rest.  After  holding  the 
country  in  possession  for  a  long  time  after  each  incursion, 
perhaps  five  hundred  years  in  all,  they  were  driven  out 
by  the  natives.  It  is  supposed  that  Joseph  came  into 
Egypt  not  long  after  the  expulsion  of  the  first  race  of 
shepherd  kings,  and  was  followed  by  his  father  and 
brethren  after  some  years. 

The  second  race  of  usurpers  oppressed  both  the  Israel- 
ites and  the  natives,  and  probably  made  them  both  unite 
in  building  the  great  pyramids,  and  the  other  wonders  of 
Egypt.  The  shepherd  kings  were  called  Auretse,  from 
the  word  Aur,  the  sun,  which  they  worshipped.  They 
settled  first  in  the  upper  part  of  the  Delta,  the  richest 
portion  of  Egypt.  This  was  the  region  from  whence, 
after  building  a  city  called  Abaris,  for  their  defence, 
they  were  driven  out.  Its  pastures  were  so  fine,  and 
the  climate  such,  that  sheep  are  said  to  have  had  lambs 
twice  a  year,  and  yielded  two  fleeces  of  wool  each 
year.  This  was  the  part  of  Egypt  that  was  given  to 
Jacob  and  his  sons,  for  themselves,  their  flocks  and 
herds.     In  the  providence  of  God  it  had  been  vacated 


THE    DISPERSED   IN   AFEICA.  295 

in  time  for  tlieir  reception.     A  passage  from  one  of  the 
books  of  Moses  concerning  it  deserves  some  explanation, 
A  reason  assigned  for  its  selection  was,  that  every  shep- 
herd was  an  abomination  to  the  Egyptians,  which  might 
be  easily  understood  if  the  worst  part  of  the  land  had 
been  assigned  to  Jacob  ;  but  Pharaoh  desired  Joseph  to 
choose  the  best  part  of  the  land  of  Egypt  for  him.     The 
explanation  of  the  passage  is,  either  that  shepherds  were 
an    abomination   to   the   Egyptians    because  of  the  ill- 
treatment  they  had  received  from  the  shepherd  kings, 
who,  doubtless,  had  large  flocks,  or  that  the  Egyptians, 
who   at  that  time  offered  no  animal  sacrifices  to  their 
gods,  or  only  certain  kinds,  with  handfuls  of  corn,  frank- 
incense, and  myrrh,  held  in  detestation  the  sacrifices  of 
cattle  and  sheep  which  the  shepherd  kings  had  been  ac- 
customed to  offer    from   their   large  flocks   and   herds. 
Although  Jacob  had  been  accustomed  to  make  such  offer- 
ings to  Jehovah,  yet  we  are  told  that  during  all  their  res- 
idence in  Egypt  the  Israelites  never  dared  to  do  it.    This 
explains  the  demand  of  Moses  that  they  might  be  allov/- 
ed  to  go  three  days'  journey  into  the  wilderness,  that  is, 
to  Arabia,  in  order  to  sacrifice  ;  pleading  that  if  they 
should  sacrifice  the  abominations  of  the  Egyptians, — that 
is,  cattle, — the  Egyptians  would  stone  them.     Although 
afterwards,  and  for  a  long  time,   according  to  Ezekiel, 
Egyptians   "  became  a  base  kingdom,"   "  the  basest  of 
kingdojns,"  and  "  without  a  prince," — that  is,  a  prince  of 
her  own, — yet  in  the  time  of  Joseph  they  became  great, 
probably  when  he  had  the  chief  place  in  the  kingdom. 
Though  Pharaoh  was  the  leading  king,  there  were  others, 
for  the  country  was  divided  into  many  petty  kingdoms. 
It  was  at  that  time  in  Egypt  as  in  Asia,  and  many  other 
countries : 

"  In  Asia  regna  voluptissima  sunt 
Urbes  sinG;ulte  suos  habcnt  reges." 


296  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

They  were,  however,  all  in  confusion,  as  in  the  petty 
kingdoms  of  Canaan  and  the  small  tribes  of  Africa,  and 
in  Europe  in  feudal  times ;  but  Joseph,  availing  himself 
of  the  opjDortunity  furnished  him  by  the  seven  years  of 
plenty  and  the  seven  years  of  famine,  got  possession  for 
Pharaoh  of  all  the  land,  and  cattle,  and  money  of  Egypt, 
and  made  the  people  subject  to  him,  removing  them  from 
one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other,  changing  their  cities, 
and  thus  preventing  all  associations  for  regaining  their 
licentious  independence.  Such  was  the  case  in  other 
countries,  according  to  ancient  history. 

In  relation  to  the  shepherd  kings,  who  took  possession 
of  Egy23t  at  an  early  period  and  held  it  so  long,  the  fol- 
lowing passage  from  Manetho,  the  earliest  of  the  Egyptian 
historians,  will  interest  the  reader  :  "  "We  had  formerly  a 
king  named  Timmaus,  in  whose  reign,  I  know  not  why,  it 
pleased  God  to  visit  us  with  a  blast  of  his  displeasure ; 
when,  on  a  sudden,  there  came  upon  the  nation  a  large 
body  of  obscure  peo23le  from  the  East :  with  great  bold- 
ness they  invaded  the  land,  and  took  it  without  opposition. 
The  chiefs  of  our  people  they  reduced  to  obedience,  and 
treated  them  in  the  most  cruel  manner ;  set  fire  to  their 
towns,  and  overturned  their  temples."  He  then  gives  an 
account  of  six  of  their  kings,  "  who  in  succession  were 
always  in  a  state  of  hostility  with  the  natives,  and  en- 
deavored, if  ]3ossible,  to  root  out  the  very  name  of  Egyp- 
tian." The  whole  body  of  this  people  were  called  Ilukos, 
that  is,  "  royal  shepherds."  Manetho  also  refers  to  the 
subsequent  settlement  of  Joseph  and  the  Israelites,  and 
their  removal.  That  the  first  shepherds  were  fire-wor- 
shippers is  evident  from  a  saying  among  them  in  their  wor- 
ship :  "111  Alia ;  Alia  Ouac,  Oubar  Alia."  That  is,  "Tlie 
Sun  is  God ;  the  great  Lord  Aur  is  God." 

In  relation  to  the  architecture  of  Egypt,  Sir  William 
Jones,  in  speaking  of  India,  says,   "  The  remains  of  ar- 


THE   DISPERSED   IN   AFRICA.  297 

cliitecture  and  sculpture  in  India  seem  to  prove  an 
early  intercourse  between  tliat  country  and  Africa. 
Many  indubitable  facts  may  induce  no  ill-grounded  opin- 
ion, that  Ethiopia,  —  that  is,  Asiatic  Ethiopia,  —  Africa, 
and  Ilindostan  were  peopled  or  colonized  by  the  same 
extraordinary  race,  that  is,  the  descendants  of  Ham, 
through  Cush  and  Nimrod,  who  overran  India,  overpow- 
ering the  descendants  of  Shem,  and  took  possession  of 
Egypt,  driving  out  or  enslaving  the  descendants  of  Mis- 
raim,  the  oldest  of  the  sons  of  Ham."  An  ancient  tradi- 
tion also  says,  that  the  Chaldeans, — the  descendants  of 
Cush, — formerly  invaded  Egypt,  and  overcame  the  priests 
and  worshippers  of  Canobus,  their  ancient  king  and  god, 
changed  its  religion,  and  altered  its  annals.  In  the  time 
of  Joseph  and  also  of  Moses,  we  know  that  they  wor- 
shipped the  sun  under  the  name  of  On.  In  relation  to 
their  annals, — the  dynasties  of  their  kings  and  gods, — 
the  utmost  confusion  exists.  Their  first  kings  were 
called  gods ;  the  second  race  were  called  demi-gods.  As 
to  the  immense  period  of  their  past  existence,  that  is  all 
fable.  We  have  nothing  reliable  till  we  come  to  the  god 
of  the  ark  and  the  deluge,  and  then  the  resemblance  of 
their  history  to  that  of  all  the  nations  around  is  easily  es- 
tablished. Their  Isis  and  Osiris  are  believed  by  many  to 
be  the  second  father  and  mother  of  the  renewed  race  of 
men,  the  male  and  female  deities  of  the  ark,  called  by  so 
many  different  names  in  different  countries,  according  to 
the  languages  thereof.  Ausonius  says,  evidently  referring 
to  Noah,  "  Ogygia  (that  is,  Beotia)  me  Bacchum  vocat ;" 
"  Osyrin  Egyptus  putat ;"  "  Mysi,  Phanacem."  These 
were  only  a  few  of  the  various  names  given  to  the  hero- 
god  of  the  ark. 

The  names  of  the  kings  of  Egypt  were  blended  with 
their  gods ;  Pharaoh,  the  common  name  of  their  kings, 
is  the  same  with  Phree,  or  God.     Tradition,  in  Asia,  says 


298  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

that  Nanasli  or  JSToali  was  at  first  a  mortal,  but  became  a 
god  while  he  was  in  the  ark. 

We  have  before  seen,  from  the  Orphic  hymns  and  oth- 
erwise, that  the  Egyptians  had  some  idea  of  a  Supreme 
Deity,  the  creator  of  gods  and  men  and  all  things ;  but 
they  did  not  like  to  retain  this  God  in  their  knowledge, 
and  began  to  worship  the  deities  of  the  ark,  and  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars,  as  emanations  and  parts  of  the  great 
Deity.  Herodotus  tells  us  that  they  paid  no  religious 
honor  to  heroes  as  the  Grecians  did ;  that  they  told  him, 
when  visiting  Egypt,  that  their  images  were  only  the  im- 
ages of  great  and  noble  men,  but  who  were  far  from  being 
gods ;  that,  at  the  first,  God  reigned  over  Egypt.  He 
speaks  of  visiting  the  tomb  of  one  at  Sais,  "  whom  I  con- 
sider it  impious  to  divulge  on  such  an  occasion."  He 
tells  us  of  "  a  great  feast  at  Butastis,  where  more  wine  is 
consumed  than  in  all  the  rest  of  the  year,"  seven  hundred 
thousand  persons  being  present.  At  this  sacrifice  they 
all  beat  themselves  violently  :  "  But  for  whom  they  thus 
beat  themselves  it  were  impious  to  divulge."  The  Egyp- 
tians, after  a  time,  it  is  well  known,  began  to  worship 
every  thing  in  nature,  whether  in  the  "  heavens  above,  or 
in  the  earth  beneath."  Pan,  or  all  things  in  nature,  was 
their  deity.  Xot  a  plant  or  flower  of  the  garden,  or 
grain  of  the  fields,  or  tree  of  the  forest,  or  fowl  of  the 
air,  or  beast,  or  reptile,  which  had  the  power  of  propagat- 
ing its  kind,  but  was  a  part  of  the  great  Creator.  Juve- 
nal, in  one  of  his  satires,  speaks  of  them  as  adoring  all 
which  grew  in  their  gardens,  their  fields,  and  their  rivers. 
Especially  did  they  adore  rivers  as  deities, — the  river 
Nile  being  the  chief  river-god  because  the  instrument  of 
so  much  fertility,  and  especially  because  its  source  was 
unknown  to  them. 

The  Egyptians,  like  some  other  nations,  divided  theii 
gods  into  two  sexes — sometimes  combined  them  into  one 


THE    DISPERSED   IN   AFRICA.  299 

hermaplirodite.  In  tlie  mysteries  of  Eo;ypt,  all  tlie  facts 
belonging  to  the  ark,  tlie  deluge,  and  Noah's  family  are 
celebrated  in  the  most  imposing  manner,  as  we  have 
already  stated  in  a  previous  chapter. 

Their  religion  having  been,  heretofore,  so  wrapped  up  in 
their  unintelligible  hieroglyphics,  has  been  less  understood 
than  that  of  some  other  nations.  The  information  gotten 
by  some  of  the  ancient  philosophers  of  Greece  and  Home, 
while  residing  in  Egypt  and  searching  for  knowledge, 
from  the  priests,  has  heretofore  been  the  chief  source  of 
our  acquaintance  with  the  Egyptian  theology.  The  fa- 
mous Rosetta  stone,  dug  up  by  Napoleon  Bonaparte's  sol- 
diers while  in  Egypt,  (now  in  the  British  Museum,)  Avith 
an  inscription  in  Greek,  in  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  and 
phonetic  symbols,  is  proving  a  great  help  to  the  decipher- 
ing of  the  hieroglyphics  which  have  so  long  shut  up  the 
Egyptian  literature  and  theology  from  the  world.  The 
discovery  of  more  of  the  ancient  temples  in  Upper  Egypt, 
with  their  inscriptions,  will  add  something  valuable,  it  is 
hoped,  to  our  knowledge  of  the  Egyptian  antiquities. 
The  burning  of  the  Alexandrian  library  in  the  time  of  Ju- 
lius Caesar,  and  the  ruthless  destruction  of  so  many  others 
by  the  Saracens  in  the  tenth  century,  has  doubtless  lost 
to  the  world  much  of  ancient  lore  which  can  never  be  re- 
stored. And  yet  we  doubt  not  that  the  famous  school  of 
the  Christian  fathers  in  Egypt,  reared  over  the  very 
ashes  of  the  conflagrated  library,  has  done  much  to  recov- 
er many  ancient  fragments  of  literature ;  while  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  Christian  church  all  along  the  north- 
ern coast  of  Africa,  converted  one  of  the  most  barbarous 
and  ferocious  parts  of  the  pagan  world  into  a  comparative 
paradise  for  many  centuries.  The  history  of  the  abomina- 
tions of  the  idolatry  of  Carthage  alone  is  enough  to  stag- 
ger all  belief,  were  it  not  too  well  established  by  un- 
doubted authority,  and  confirmed  by  the  accounts  of  other 


800  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

parts  of  the  pagan  world.  The  cruel  rites  of  Moloch,  prac- 
tised in  Carthage,  were  only  a  transfer  to  that  place  of  the 
abominations  of  the  Yalley  of  Hinnom,  near  Jerusalem, 
by  the  Canaanites  who  colonized  it.  In  each  place  chil- 
dren were  snatched  from  their  mothers'  arms,  and  thrown 
into  the  wide-open  mouth  of  the  burning,  blazing,  insati- 
able god.  Of  this  we  shall  have  more  to  say  in  another 
place. 

The  Egyptians  themselves,  even  after  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  worship  of  the  sun  by  the  shepherd  kings, 
were  for  some  time  behind  the  Greeks  and  Romans  in  the 
abominations  of  their  worship.  Mr.  Bryant  says,  "The 
ancient  Chaldeans,  from  whence  the  shepherd  kings  re- 
ceived their  religion,  would  have  tliought  themselves  and 
their  deities  injured  by  a  comparison  with  them.  They 
doubtless  were  guilty  of  idolatry  in  worshijjping  the  Su- 
preme Deity  under  any  resemblance, — yet  there  are  de- 
grees even  in  idolatry ;  they  were  not  so  gross  m  their 
conceptions  or  worship  as  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  Their 
god  had  no  resemblance  to  Bacchus,  the  god  of  grapes  ; 
or  to  Mulciber,  the  blacksmith.  There  are  passages  which 
show  that,  in  the  time  of  Abraham's  visit  to  Egypt,  there 
were  evidences  of  the  true  religion.  Li  the  time  of  Joseph 
the  same  may  be  said.  His  marriage  with  a  daughter  of 
the  priest  of  the  sun,  and  the  favors  shown  to  him  by  Pha- 
raoh, and  the  respectful  language  used  in  relation  to  the 
God  of  Joseph,  is  a  proof  of  this.  Although  the  prophets 
are  so  full  of  denunciations  against  Egypt  on  account  of 
its  increasing  corruj^tion  of  morals  and  the  abominations 
of  their  idolatry,  yet  we  find  kind  reference  to  them,  and 
favoring  decrees  in  regard  to  them,  at  an  earlier  period. 
Thus  in  Deuteronomy  it  is  written,  "  Thou  shalt  not  abhor 
an  Egyptian,  because  thou  wast  a  stranger  in  the  land  of 
Egypt."  And  while  the  Moabites  and  Ammonites  must 
not  enter  into  the  congregation,  even  to  the  tenth  genera- 


THE   DISPERSED    IN   AFRICA.  301 

tion,  the  children  of  the  Egyptians  might  be  admitted  in 
the  third  generation. 

To  the  foregoing  account  of  the  religion  of  ancient 
Egypt,  I  subjoin  a  communication  touching  its  present 
theology  and  worship.  It  is  from  the  pen  of  my  brother, 
Bishojj  Payne,  than  whom  no  man  living  is  better  quali- 
fied to  afford  reliable  information. 

My  Dear  Bishop  : — I  reply,  as  soon  as  I  have  been  able 
to  command  time,  to  your  kind  favor  of  the  14th  inst.  It 
gives  me  great  pleasure  to  assist  you  in  the  work  which 
you  have  in  hand  ;  especially  as  it  atibrds  me  an  oppor- 
tunity to  give  some  reliable  account  of  what  has  been  very 
little  understood, — the  mythology  of  the  pagan  Africans. 
You  will  share  in  the  surprise  I  felt  on  the  discovery  of 
the  resemblance  of  this  system  to  that  of  the  heathen  in  all 
ages,  and  to  some  of  the  great  truths  of  revelation. 

I  will  give  the  account  of  this  very  much  in  the  lan- 
guage in  which  I  received  it  from  an  aged  Grebo  deya,  or 
demon-man  :  "  In  the  beginning,  God  (or  Nyesoa, — nye^ 
man,  sou,  abiding, — very  like  Jehovah,  the  Eternal  One) 
lived  on  earth  among  men.  Then  there  was  no  sickness, 
no  sorrow,  no  death.  After  a  time,  however,  Nyesoa  let 
fall  from  his  hands  We,  witchcraft, — or  that  which  causeth 
death.  A  woman  got  hold  of  this  :  soon  a  death  followed. 
Men,  dismayed,  went  to  Nyesoa  to  ask  the  cause.  He  re- 
plied, that  '  We  had  fallen  from  him,  and  was  in  posses- 
sion of  a  woman.  She  had  caused  the  death.'  He  told 
them,  moreover,  that  '  he  would  now  direct  them  to  a  test 
by  which  they  could  ascertain  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the 
woman,  and  others  suspected  of  like  crime.'  He  showed 
them  the  gidu-tree,  and  directed  them  to  make  an  infu- 
sion of  the  bark  and  administer  it  to  the  woman.  If  guilty, 
it  would  cause  her  death  ;  if  innocent,  she  would  vomit  it 
and  escape.     The  woman  drank  the  mixture,  and  died. 


302  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

Before  this,  however,  she  had  succeeded  in  conveying  this 
mysterious  We  to  lier  cliildren.  Thus  sickness  and  death 
overspread  the  world.  Men  became  so  corrupt  that  Nye- 
soa  told  them  he  could  no  longer  dwell  among  them ; 
and  he  withdrew  to  heaven.  Before  leaving,  however,  he 
assured  them  he  should  always  take  an  interest  in  their 
affairs,  and  that  he  would  leave  among  them  a  class  of 
men  through  whom  they  could  communicate  with  him. 
This  class  are  the  deyabo,  or  demon-men." 

In  this  narrative  we  have  the  professedly  divine  origin 
of  gidii,  or  "  sassa-wood,"  reminding  one  of  "  the  waters 
of  jealousy,"  and  used  all  through  Central  Africa  as  a  test 
of  witchcraft  and  other  crimes ; — the  account,  so  nearly 
scriptural,  of  God's  dwelling  with  men,  the  introduction 
of  evil  by  woman,  and  the  deyabo,  representing  almost  ex- 
actly Balaam  and  the  false  prophets  and  oracles  of  all 
heathen  countries  ; — the  idea  being,  in  all  these  cases,  that 
the  daimon  of  the  Greeks,— the  Jyu  of  the  Greboes, — is 
sent  by  N^yesoa,  or  the  Supreme  Being ;  and  hence  the 
responses  or  directions  of  those  acting  under  the  influence 
of  these  spirits  have  a  divine  sanction.  The  senseless  gre- 
grees  or  fetishes,  therefore,  made  of  horns,  wood,  or  stone, ' 
are  as  potent  for  good  or  evil  as  the  nicely  chiselled  statue 
of  Jupiter,  or  the  image  of  the  great  goddess  Diana,  which 
fell  down  from  heaven. 

Like  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  too,  the  Greboes  deify 
their  departed  friends  ;  assigning  them  relatively  the  same 
position  in  the  future  world  which  they  had  occupied  in 
this.  Thus  the  warrior  is  the  warrior  Ji:u,  or  demon,  ex- 
erting a  powerful  influence  over  war,  and  to  be  propitiated 
by  oflerings  in  time  of  war,  or  when  it  is  pending.  The 
trader  from  the  spirit-land  exerts  an  influence  over  trade, 
and  must  be  proj^itiated  when  it  languishes.  The  rich  man, 
who  had  his  slaves  to  wait  on  him  when  living,  must  still 
have  them  when  dead.    And  therefore,  in  the  kingdoms  of 


THE   DISPERSED   IN   AFRICA.  303 

Dahomey  and  Ashanti,  slaves  are  killed  at  the  death  of  the 
masters,  to  accompany  and  wait  on  them  in  the  future  world. 

The  spirits  of  the  departed  (in  order  to  eat  the  food 
ofiered  to  them,  and  for  other  purposes)  enter  into  the 
bodies  of  animals,  which  for  this  reason  become  sacred. 
Thus  monkeys  and  even  snakes  are,  in  particular  places 
and  circumstances,  the  objects  of  religious  oiferings  and  fear. 
In  strange  opposition,  however,  to  the  view  of  the  condi- 
tion of  the  departed,  it  is  a  very  prevalent  idea  that  after 
a  certain  time  the  spirits  of  the  departed  return  to  the 
world  in  the  bodies  of  new-born  children,  who,  accord- 
ingly, by  the  direction  of  a  deya,  receive  their  names. 
There  is  still  another  class  of  Ku^  or  demons,  with  whose 
origin  no  one  professes  to  be  acquainted.  Thus,  in  par- 
ticular localities, — generally  a  remarkable  rock  or  grove, — 
they  are  said  to  have  lived  from  time  immemorial,  and  to 
have  been  the  objects  of  worship.  Of  the  idols  of  the  Af- 
ricans, it  is  only  the  larger, — having,  in  a  few  cases,  some 
resemblance  to  a  human  being, — that  are  supposed  to  have 
a.  Jul,  demon  or  spirits,  in  them.  The  smaller  kind,  worn 
about  the  person,  are  supposed  to  possess  only  a  sort  of 
magical  influence  communicated  by  the  deya  or  demon- 
man  who  prepared  them. 

In  the  office  of  bodia,  theoretically  the  highest  among 
the  people,  are  many  remarkable  resemblances  to  that  of 
the  Jewish  high  priest.  The  office  is  hereditary  in  a  par- 
ticular family.  "When  an  incumbent  is  likely  to  die,  the 
ring  of  office  is  taken  from  his  ankle  and  put  uj)on  that  of 
some  member  of  his  family,  until  an  oracle  is  consulted  to 
know  who  is  to  succeed.  One  of  the  older  members  of  the 
family  is  generally  chosen.  A  day  is  appointed  for  his 
inauguration  ;  the  people  all  assemble ;  the  heads  of  fam- 
ilies now  ap})roach  and  give,  in  turn,  the  newly-elected 
bodia  a  solemn  charge.  During  his  administration  the 
seasons  are  to  be  propitious ;  trade  is  to  flourish  ;  witch- 


30-i  THE   BIBLE   AND    THE    CLASSICS. 

craft  and  war  are  to  be  kept  far  away.  An  animal  or  lie- 
goat  is  brought  for  sacrifice.  The  proper  officer  taking  up 
the  animal,  invokes  Nyesoa,  (God,)  the  spirits  of  the  dead, 
and  other  Kioi  demons.  The  animal  is  killed  by  being 
thrown  violently  against  the  gronnd,  without  mntilation. 
After  being  thus  killed,  the  throat  is  cut,  and  the  blood  is 
sprinkled  uj^on  the  bodia's  ear,  finger,  and  toe  ;  also  upon 
the  door-posts  of  his  house  and  public  idols  within.  He 
is  then  washed  and  anointed  with  oil.  He  remains  in  this 
anointing  three  days,  and  then  takes  possession  of  the  pub- 
lic house  prepared  for  him.  That  house  is  always  of  a  long 
shape,  unlike  others  ;  it  is  called  tai-l:ai^  the  anointed 
house.  In  it  are  kept  the  public  idols  which  are  to  be  fed 
by  the  bodia,  and  a  fire  nnist  be  kept  ever  burning.  In 
this  house  alone  can  the  bodia  eat  and  sleej),  exce]3t  when 
he  may  visit  a  parent  town,  or  the  one  from  which  his  peo- 
ple have  been  colonized.  When  he  goes  with  his  people, 
as  is  usual,  to  work  on  the  farms,  he  must  only  drink  wa- 
ter in  the  public  highway.  He  may  never  become  intox- 
icated, nor  be  guilty  of  unchastity.  He  may  never  weep 
for  the  dead,  nor  take  part  in  a  burial,  nor  take  food  in 
town  while  a  corpse  lies  unburied  in  it.  He  has  a  vote  on 
all  public  measures ;  his  house  is  a  place  of  refuge  where 
no  one  may  be  molested,  whatever  crime  he  may  have 
committed.  When  the  bodia,  or  his  chief  wife  (also  a  sa- 
cred person)  dies,  no  mourning  is  allowed,  and  they  are 
buried  at  night.  In  case  he  has  died  by  gidu^  or  sassa- 
wood,  his  body  must  be  buried  beneath  a  running  stream 
of  water. 

I  have  not  been  able  to  find  among  the  Greboes,  or  their 
pagan  neighbors,  the  idea  of  sacrificing  as  atonement  for 
sin.  Their  off'erings  are  avowedly  to  feed  their  demons. 
When  these  demons  are  said  to  be  angry,  and  to  inflict  or 
threaten  calamities,  the  reason  always  assigned  by  the  de- 
mon-men is,  that  they  are  hungry ;  or  that  they  are  dis- 


THE   DISPERSED   IN  AFRICA.  805 

pleased  at  some  violation  of  political,  social,  or  hereditary- 
rights  of  families  or  individuals.  Sometimes  it  is  because 
they  themselves  have  been  killed  unjustly  by  gidic  or  sas- 
sa-wood.  And  yet  the  idea  of  moral  purity  seems  to  linger 
among  them.  This  appears  in  the  law  of  temperance  and 
chastity  for  the  bodia,  and  for  the  tibawaa,  the  next  officer 
in  authority  to  him  ;  also,  in  the  formal  ceremony  to  pu- 
rify the  land  from  Tcamt,  or  pollution  after  war  ;  and  the 
trial  of  all  married  women,  to  ascertain  if  they  have  been 
guilty  of  unchastity,  when  their  husbands  are  going  to 
war.  The  rite  of  circumcision  is  practised  by  the  Man- 
durgos,  Foulahs,  the  large  Mohammedan  tribes  of  Central 
Africa,  and  some  pagan  tribes  in  their  neighborhood,  or 
who  have  been  brought  under  their  influence.  The  right 
of  primogeniture  is  everywhere  acknowledged  among  the 
Africans,  securing  to  the  first-born  son  great  authority 
during  the  life  of  the  father,  and  succession  to  his  full 
rights  at  death.  There  is  a  great  prejudice  against  twins 
throughout  the  country,  on  the  ground  that  "  the  elder 
will  serve  the  younger." 

On  the  part  of  the  coast  near  the  equator  there  is  a  prac- 
tice which  seems  to  point  to  infant  baptism.  The  new- 
born babe  is  laid  on  a  mat,  in  the  centre  of  the  village  or 
town,  and  the  citizens  go  in  turn  to  welcome  it  to  their 
society,  and  throw  water  upon  it. 

Hoping  that  these  facts  may  answer  your  purpose,  and 

praying  for  God's  blessing  upon  all  your  efforts  for  his 

glory, — I  remain,  my  dear  Bishop, 

Yery  respectfully  and  truly 

Your  Friend  and  Son  in  the  Gospel, 

John  Payne. 
20 


306  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 


APPENDIX. 

Since  writing  the  foregoing  cliapter,  I  have  examined 
all  that  the  Rawlinsons,  Wilkinson,  and  Hardwic  have 
communicated  to  the  world  of  their  researches  in  Egypt, 
and  find  what  I  have  stated  abundantly  confirmed.  They 
unite  in  testifying  that  Egypt  is  no  longer  to  be  regarded 
as  tlie  land  of  useless  ruins,  and  of  enigmas  not  to  be 
solved,  but  of  sculptured  monuments  teaching  ancient  his- 
tory and  science.  The  walls,  platforms,  piHars,  and  door- 
posts of  their  temples  are  covered,  within  and  without, 
with  explanatory^  and  historic  pictures  wliich  the  learned 
are  deciphering.  IsTo  colossus  is  so  great,  no  amulet  so 
small,  but  has  tlie  name  of  its  owner  and  some  account 
of  it  engraved  thereon.  The  earliest  sacred  books  of 
Egypt  were  those  called  "The  Books  of  Hermes" — the 
ancient  Mercury  and  scribe  of  the  gods,  according  to 
their  tradition.  Even  in  the  time  of  Clement  of  Alexan- 
dria, they  were  carried  about  in  the  temple  of  Isis  by  the 
priests  in  solemn  procession.  They  treated  on  various  sub- 
jects,— religion,  philosophy,  sacrifices,  medicine,  astronomy, 
etc.  One  of  them  yet  remains,  but  that  only  in  fragments. 
It  is  entitled  "The  Book  of  the  Dead."  In  it  are  references 
to  the  times  of  the  Pharaohs,  and  to  funeral  ceremonies. 

Mr.  Hardwic  says,  "  It  is  the  same  with  the  Egyptian 
as  with  the  Hindoo ;  a  vague  idea  of  the  unity  of  God 
lingered  in  the  background  of  his  metaphysical  system 
long  after  it  had  ceased  to  have  any  practical  efifect. 
Fascinated  by  the  mysterious  powers  and  processes  of 
nature,  he  abandoned  the  ancient  faith  in  God,  and  bow- 
ed down  in  adoration  to  the  world  above,  beneath,  and 
around  him."  Still,  at  times  lie  would  speak  of  a  "  Great 
Builder,"  a  "  Creator  of  the  universe,"  a  "  Creator  self- 
created,"  a  "Soul  of  the  sun,"  a  "father  and  mother  of 
the  gods ;"    but  gradually  the    "  bright  memory  of  one 


THE   DISPERSED   IN  AFRICA.  307 

only  God  faded  from  tlie  human  spirit,  and  his  functions 
were  ascribed  to  a  succession  of  subordinate  divinities 
which  constituted  the  objects  of  Egyptian  worship."  Na- 
ture was  tlie  highest  god  of  tlie  pliilosophic  priests,  while 
the  people  brought  their  offerings  to  some  one  or  other 
of  the  various  powers  of  nature  in  the  form  of  some  im- 
age or  idol  of  the  deity.  Animal  worship  prevailed  in 
the  highest  degree  in  Egypt,  because  the  powers  of  nature 
were  seen  in  them.  Plutarch,  who  endeavored  to  make 
the  best  of  their  religion,  nevertheless  says,  "  The  greater 
part  of  the  Egyptians,  by  adoring  the  animals  themselves 
as  gods,  have  filled  their  ritual  with  subjects  of  laughter 
and  opprobrium." 

Animal  sacrifices  were  offered  up  in  Egypt,  says  Hard- 
wic,  during  all  its  historic  period;  but  it  was  done  out  of 
fear  of  the  hostility  of  their  gods,  and  to  avert  their  an- 
ger. After  a  time,  however,  cows  and  heifers  were  ex- 
cepted, as  being  sacred  to  their  god  Apis.  To  offer  them 
was  to  offer  what  Moses  called  "  the  abomination  of  the 
Egyptians," — that  is,  it  was  an  abomination  to  sacrifice 
them.  The  Egyptians,  like  all  other  ancient  pagans,  sac- 
rificed much  to  the  manes  or  spirits  of  their  ancestors. 
Especially  did  they  show  piety  to  their  parents  in  this 
way.  With  many  funeral  ceremonies  they  dedicated  their 
hearts  to  their  parents,  as  to  the  "  authors  of  their  bodies." 

As  to  a  future  state,  they  certaiidy  believed  in  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul ;  but  when  Herodotus  says  they 
were  the  first  who  taught  it,  we  must  take  his  explanation 
in  order  to  understand  his  meaning.  "They  were  also  the 
first  to  broach  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  that  when 
the  body  dies  it  enters  into  the  form  of  an  animal  which 
is  boi-n  at  the  moment,  thence  passing  on  from  one  animal 
into  another  until  it  has  circled  through  all  th-e  creatures 
which  tenant  the  earth,  the  water,  and  the  air,  after  which 
it  enters  again  into  a  human  frame  and  is  born  anew. 


308  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

The  whole  period  of  the  transmigration  is  (they  say)  three 
thousand  years.  There  are  Greek  writers,  some  of  an  ear- 
lier, some  of  a  later  date,  who  have  borrowed  this  doctrine 
from  the  Egyptians  and  put  it  forward  as  their  own."  It 
was,  therefore,  the  doctrine  of  transmigration, — the  mode 
of  immortality, — they  taught  first,  and  not  the  existence 
of  the  soul  after  the  death  of  the  body,  which  was  a  uni- 
versal belief. 

They  were  also  much  given  to  astronomy.  Their  chief 
divinities,  says  a  writer  of  the  first  century,  were  the 
seven  planets  and  the  twelve  signs  of  the  Zodiac.  "With 
the  figure  and  motion  of  the  earth  and  the  planets  it  is 
believed  they  were  much  better  acquainted  than  many  of 
the  moderns  suppose ;  and  Moses  himself,  being  learned 
"  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,"  may  also  have  had 
better  views  on  this  subject  than  are  imputed  to  him,  al- 
though natural  philosophy  and  astronomy  were  not  among 
the  objects  of  God's  revelation  to  him. 

As  to  their  knowledge  of  the  fall  and  man's  corruption, 
however  long  they  may  liave  retained  correct  traditions  of 
it,  we  in  vain  look  for  any  evidence  of  a  proper  sense  of 
it  in  their  rituals.  There  are  no  confessions  of  innate  de- 
pravity in  their  prayers,  no  appeals  for  mercy  to  the 
great  Judge.  Theirs  was  the  religion  of  the  Pharisee, — a 
boasting  of  self-rigliteousness.  In  one  of  their  books  there 
is  a  form  of  self-justification  in  view  of  the  judgment  after 
death,  consisting  of  thirty-six  disavowals  of  sin,  the  first 
of  which  is  as  follows  :  "  I  have  neither  done  any  sin,  nor 
omitted  any  duty."  The  rest  are  denials  of  all  kinds  of 
special  acts.  In  embalming  the  dead  bodies  also,  the 
embalmer  says,  in  the  name  of  the  dead  person,  "If  I 
have  committed  any  fault  during  my  life,  either  in  eating 
or  drinking,  it  has  not  been  done  on  my  own  account,  but 
on  account  of  these,"  pointing  to  the  cliest  containing  the 
entrails. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

ON    THE    CANAANITES    AND    ANIMAL    SACRIFICES. 

The  laud  of  Judea  or  Palestine,  though  set  apart  for 
the  Israelites  who  descended  from  Shetn,  and  according 
to  God's  command  taken  possession  of  by  Abraham,  and 
held  for  them  by  Isaac  and  Jacob  until  the  removal  of 
the  latter  into  Egypt,  was  chiefly  occupied  by  the  de- 
scendants of  Canaan.  The  scriptural  account  of  Canaan 
is  as  follows :  Noah,  having  planted  a  vineyard  and  drank 
of  the  juice  of  the  grape,  became  intoxicated — whether 
from  ignorance  of  its  power  to  produce  this  effect,  or  some 
other  cause,  is  matter  of  conjecture.  "While  in  this  con- 
dition. Ham,  one  of  his  sons,  is  supposed  to  have  been 
guilty  of  some  irreverence  toward  him  ;  while  the  other 
two,  Shem  and  Japheth,  sohght  as  far  as  possible  to  con- 
ceal their  father's  shame.  That  Ham  was  really  guilty  is 
nowhere  stated,  but  is  inferred  from  what  followed.  It  is 
written,  that  when  Noah  awoke  from  his  wine,  and  knew 
what  his  younger  son — or,  as  it  is  sometimes  rendered, 
little  son — had  done  unto  him,  he  pronounced  a  prophecy, 
under  the  inspiration  of  God's  Spirit,  in  relation  to  the 
future  history  of  his  descendants,  saying,  "  Cursed  be 
Canaan  ;  a  servant  of  servants  shall  he  be  unto  his  breth- 
ren. Blessed  be  the  Lord  God  of  Shem ;  and  Canaan 
shall  be  his  servant.  God  shall  enlarge  Japheth,  and  he 
shall  dwell  in  the  tents  of  Shem  ;  and  Canaan  shall  be  his 
servant." 


810  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

From  the  fact  that  the  name  of  Ham  is  not  mentioned 
in  the  prophecy,  and  the  one  who  oifered  the  indignity  to 
Noah  is  called  "his  younger  or  little  son,"  and  that  all  the 
curses  were  uttered  against  Canaan,  it  has  been  supposed 
that  Canaan  had  done  something  offensive,  though  it  is 
not  mentioned  Ly  the  historian  ;  and  that  the  servitude 
prophesied  was  confined  to  that  branch  of  the  family  of 
Noah.  Others,  in  order  to  avoid  this  conclusion,  propose 
an  addition  to  the  words  of  Moses,  and  instead  of  reading 
"Cursed  be  Canaan,"  say  it  should  be  "Cursed  be  Ham,  the 
father  of  Canaan,"  so  as  to  include  any  of  Ham's  descend- 
ants ;  for  the  prophecy  referred  to  nations  yet  to  be  born 
of  Noah.  Some  there  are  who,  losing  sight  of  Canaan  as 
mentioned  in  the  prophecy,  are  disposed  to  think  that  the 
weight  of  the  curse  rests,  and  was  designed  to  rest,  upon 
those  of  Ham's  descendants  who  in  time  were  found  in 
the  interior  of  Africa,  and  of  a  different  or  darker  color 
than  the  rest  of  mankind.  If  these  were  the  only  tribes 
of  the  human  family  who  had  ever  been  in  bondage,  and 
we  were  justified  in  so  altering  the  sacred  text  as  to  make 
it  read  "  Ham,  the  father  of  Canaan,"  there  would  be 
more  plausibility  in  making  this  portion  of  the  human 
family  the  special  objects  of  the  prophecy.  But  the  en- 
slaving of  the  human  species  has  ever  prevailed  in  many 
other  portions  of  the  world,  and  in  some  of  them,  most 
probably,  before  the  trade  began  in  Africa,  and  before 
the  hot  sun,  arid  sands,  and  burning  air  of  that  country 
had  done  their  part  toward  impressing  the  darker  hue 
upon  the  race.  Large  portions  of  Europe  and  Asia  were 
settled  before  the  interior  or  South  of  Africa,  the  negro 
country,  could  have  been  settled ;  and  the  slave-trade  was 
going  on  at  a  very  early  period  in  each  of  these  countries. 
It  is  supposed  that  Joseph  was  sold  to  the  Phoenician 
merchants,  between  five  and  six  hundred  years  after  the 
deluge ;    but  he  was  a  descendant  of  the  favored  Shem, 


ANIMAL  SACRIFICES.  811 

and  from  the  land  of  Canaan.  History  informs  ns  that 
at  an  early  period  there  were  marts  or  slave-markets  in 
many  of  the  islands  and  cities  of  Greece,  and  throughout 
the  Mediterranean,  where  immense  numbers  of  persons, 
who  were  made  captives  in  war  or  otherwise,  were  offered 
for  sale.  Wherever  there  was  war  the  slave-trade  existed, 
from  a  very  early  period.  l*^ow  Asia  Minor  and  Greece, 
which  were  settled  by  the  descendants  of  all  three  of  the 
sons  of  Noah,  were  the  scenes  of  the  earliest  wars  and  the 
densest  population.  Gush  and  Canaan,  two  of  the  sons  of 
Ham,  settled  in  Asia  ;  while  Misraim  and  Phut  went  to  Af- 
rica, where  it  is  probable  that  (until  the  last  few  centuries, 
since  the  trade  between  the  coast  of  Africa  and  America 
has  been  carried  on)  far  more  of  the  descendants  of  Gush 
and  Canaan  have  been  sold  into  bondage  than  of  Misraim 
and  Phut,  because  of  the  more  numerous  wars  of  Europe 
and  Asia. 

Had  it  been  the  case,  as  some  have  perhaps  supposed, 
that  African  negroes  had  from  the  first  supplied  the  slave- 
markets  of  Greece  and  Italy,  what  numbers  would  have 
been  found  in  these  countries,  during  the  whole  period 
of  their  history,  even  to  this  day.  During  the  two  or 
three  centuries  of  the  African  slave-trade  with  America, 
how  many  millions  have  been  settled  among  us  and  are 
with  us  ?  But  we  read  no  such  account  of  millions  of  this 
race  in  Europe  and  Asia  Minor.  We  may  further  infer 
the  early  and  extensive  existence  of  slavery  in  Asia — 
and  that  not  of  the  negro  race  only,  if  at  all — from  the 
language  of  the  Decalogue,  in  which  God,  from  Mount 
Sinai,  recognized  that  class,  and  from  the  other  laws  of 
Moses  relating  to  the  treatment  of  such,  and  the  prohibi- 
tion of  man-stealing.  That  there  were  many  of  the  Etlii- 
opians  who  were  in  bondage  in  the  time  of  Moses,  who 
himself  married  an  Ethiopian  woman,  is,  I  doubt  not, 
true  ;  but  let  me  here  repeat  what  I  liave  before  said,  that 


312  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

Ethiopia  in  Africa  and  Ethiopia  in  Asia  were  different 
places,  and  the  people  of  a  different  color.  The  one  in 
Asia  was  the  first  settled  country  in  the  world.  It  lay 
between  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris,  the  two  great  rivers 
mentioned  by  Moses,  and  which,  issuing  from  the  garden  of 
Eden,  after  encompassing  a  large  territory,  emptied  them- 
selves into  the  ocean.  Babylon  and  Nineveh,  and  hun- 
dreds of  other  cities,  belonged  to  that  region.  It  contained 
the  birtliplace  of  man, — where  man,  as  to  mind  and 
body,  was  seen  in  highest  perfection.  The  other  Ethiopia, 
though  sometimes  used  to  denote  the  whole  of  Africa,  is 
more  properly  the  interior  part,  from  whence  after  a  time 
slaves  were  brought  to  Egypt  and  the  countries  on  the 
Mediterranean,  as  also  to  Greece  and  Rome,  where  we  are 
told  they  were  preferred  to  those  of  any  other  country. 
The  first  of  the  African  race  who  were  carried  into  Eu- 
rope and  sold  as  slaves,  though  of  dark  complexion,  were 
doubtless  not  of  the  darkest  hue  as  in  centuries  after, 
when  African  heat  and  exposure  may  have  blackened  and 
deformed  them.  It  w^as  not  until  near  the  Christian  era, 
that  Horace  said,  in  reproach, 

"  Hie  niger  est,  hunc  tu  Romane  caveto." 

The  African  color  and  character  may,  in  some  measure, 
have  been  traced  to  the  complexion  of  Ham  himself,  or 
the  wife  of  Ham,  or  to  both,  or  to  Phut  and  his  wife.  It 
sometimes  happens  that,  in  the  same  family,  one  son  or 
daughter  may,  by  comparison,  be  dark,  and  the  others 
fair ;  and  let  that  one  intermarry  with  one  of  tlie  same 
dark  hue,  and  settle  in  a  tropical  and  sickly  country,  how 
soon  their  descendants  would  become  darker  and  darker, 
and  in  other  respects  degenerate !  So  may  it  have  been 
with  the  African  descendants  of  Ham,  without  the  theory 
of  some,  that  God,  by  a  miracle,  for  a  special  purpose, 


ANIMAL  SACRIFICES.  313 

made  Ham  as  black  as  the  Guinea  negro;  Shem,  tawney 
as  the  Asiatic ;  and  Japheth,  fair  as  the  European. 

As  Bishop  Newton  has  often  been  quoted  in  favor  of 
the  interpretation  which  seems  to  lay  the  weight  of  the 
curse  or  prophecy  on  the  descendants  of  Ham  in  Africa, 
and  to  justify  the  African  slave-trade,  it  is  but  justice  to 
him  to  give  his  statement.  He  mentions  the  proposal  to 
alter  the  text  of  Moses  so  as  to  adapt  the  prophecy  to  the 
case  of  the  Africans,  but  dares  not  advocate  it.  Still  he 
thinks  it  may  be  so  understood  as  to  embrace  the  descend- 
ants of  Ham  in  Africa,  and  that  the  slave-trade  fulfils  it, 
though  he  does  not  say  that  it  justifies  it.  On  the  con- 
trary', his  language  in  condemnation  is  even  offensive  to 
some.  "  Africa,"  he  says,  "  was  peopled  principally  by 
the  sons  of  Ham,  and  for  how  many  ages  have  the  better 
parts  of  that  country  been  under  the  dominion  of  the  Ro- 
mans, and  then  of  the  Saracens,  and  now  of  the  Turks! 
In  what  wickedness,  ignorance,  slavery,  barbarity,  and 
misery  live  most  of  its  inhabitants.  And  of  the  poor 
negroes,  how  many  hundreds  of  them  every  year  are 
bought  and  sold  like  beasts  in  the  market,  and  are  con- 
veyed from  one  part  of  the  world  to  do  the  work  of  beasts 
in  another!"  We  must  also  do  justice  to  Bishop  Newton 
in  another  respect.  He  most  emphatically  maintains  that 
the  weight  of  the  curse  was  on  Canaan,  and  gives  us  a 
history  of  the  emigration  of  the  Canaanitish  race,  not 
only  in  the  abominations  practised  in  Palestine,  for  which 
God  cast  them  out,  but  also  of  Carthage  afterwards, 
whither  a  colony  of  them  went.  He  quotes  the  language 
of  Hannibal,  when  conquered  by  the  Romans,  "  Agnosco 
fortunara  Carthaginis" — "I  acknowledge  the  fortune  of 
Carthage" — and  thinks,  with  the  learned  Mede,  that  Han- 
nibal, a  child  of  Canaan,  was  in  these  words  uttering  the 
sentiment  of  the  nation,  which,  while  in  Canaan,  seemed 
ever  to  be  in  fear  and  trembling, — conscious  of   being 


314:  THE   BIBLE    AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

usurpers,  and  still  regarding  themselves  as  under  the 
curse  of  heaven.  Whoever  will  carefully  read  what  the 
scriptures  and  other  histories  say  of  the  abominable  vices 
and  cruelties  of  the  Canaanites,  will  not  be  much  aifected 
by  the  taunts  of  infidels,  who  delight  to  dwell  on  the  se- 
verities of  the  Israelites  when  driving  them  out  of  Ca- 
naan, and  on  the  upbraidings  of  God  because  they  did 
not  drive  them  out  sooner  and  more  entirel3\  In  the  an- 
cient Book  of  Wisdom  it  is  written,  "  For  it  was  thy  will, 
O  Lord,  to  destroy,  by  the  hands  of  our  fathers,  botli  these 
old  inhabitants  of  the  holy  land,  whom  thou  hatedst  for 
doing  most  odious  works  of  witchcraft  and  wicked  sacri- 
fices, and  these  merciless  murderers  of  cliildren  and  de- 
vourers  of  man's  flesh,  and  their  feasts  of  blood,  with  their 
priests  out  of  the  midst  of  their  idolatrous  crew,  and  the 
parents  that  killed  with  their  own  hands  souls  destitute 
of  help  ;  for  it  was  a  cursed  seed  from  the  beginning." 

Referring  you  to  the  scriptures  for  the  cruel  and  horrid 
rites  of  the  Canaanites,  and  the  Israelites  who  followed 
their  example,  I  will  adduce  some  testimonies  from  other 
histories  as  to  their  conduct  at  Carthage  and  Tyre,  where 
they  worshipped  the  gods  Moloch  and  Kronos, — none 
other  than  the  Baal  of  Canaan.  Mr.  Bryant  says,  "  Be- 
sides the  undetermined  times  of  bloodshed,  they  had  par- 
ticular prescribed  times  every  year  when  children  were 
chosen  out  of  the  most  noble  and  reputable  families ;  and 
if  a  person  had  an  only  child,  it  was  more  likely  to  be  put 
to  death  as  being  more  acceptable  to  the  deity,  and  more 
eff'ective  for  the  general  good.  Those  which  were  sacri- 
ficed to  Kronos  were  thrown  into  the  arms  of  a  molten 
idol,  which  stood  in  the  midst  of  a  large  fire  and  was  red 
with  heat.  The  arms  of  the  idol  were  stretched  out,  and 
the  hands  turned  upward  as  it  were  to  receive  them,  yet 
sloping  downwards  so  that  they  dropped  into  a  glowing 
furnace    below.      To    other  gods   they   were   otherwise 


ANIMAL   SACRIFICES.  315 

slaughtered,  and,  as  it  is  implied,  by  the  very  hands  of 
their  parents.  What  can  be  more  horrid  to  the  imagina- 
tion than  to  suppose  a  father  leading  the  dearest  of  all  his 
sons  to  such  an  infernal  shrine ;  or  a  mother,  the  most 
engaging  and  aliectionate  of  her  daughters,  just  rising  to 
maturity,  to  be  slaughtered  at  the  altar  of  Ashtaroth  or 
Baal !  Sometimes  they  embraced  their  children  with 
great  fondness,  and  encouraged  them  in  the  gentlest 
terms,  that  they  might  not  be  appalled  at  the  sight  of  the 
hellish  process,  begging  them  to  submit  with  cheerfulness 
to  the  fearful  operation.  If  there  was  any  appearance  of 
a  tear  rising,  or  a  cry  escaping  unawares,  the  mother 
smothered  it  with  her  kisses.  These  cruel  endearments 
over,  they  stabbed  them  to  the  lieart  or  otherwise  opened 
the  sluices  of  life,  and  with  the  blood,  warm  as  it  ran,  be- 
smeared the  grim  visage  of  the  idol." 

But  it  must  not  be  imagined  tliat  the  Canaanites  and 
their  descendants  were  the  only  nation  who  were  guilty 
of  these  same  cruel  sacrifices.  Even  the  Egyptians,  who 
of  old,  some  say,  brought  no  victim  to  their  temples,  and 
shed  no  blood  upon  their  altars,  afterwards  brouglit  human 
victims.  The  Cretans  and  Arabians  did  the  same.  The 
people  of  Dumah,  though  rejecting  images,  annually  sac- 
rificed a  cliild,  and  burned  it  beneath  an  altar.  The  Per- 
sians burned  persons  alive,  Araestis,  the  wife  of  Zerxes, 
burned  twelve  persons  alive  for  the  good  of  her  soul. 
The  natives  of  Tauric  Chersonesus  ofifered  up  to  Diana 
every  stranger  whom  chance  threw  upon  their  coasts. 
The  Pelasgi,  in  a  time  of  scarcity,  vowed  a  tenth  of  all 
that  should  be  born  to  them,  in  order  to  secure  plenty. 

Aristomenes,  the  Messenian,  slew  three  hundred  noble 
Lacedemonians,  among  whom  was  tlie  king  of  Sparta,  as 
an  offering  to  Jupiter.  "  Of  old,"  says  Porphyry,  "  every 
Grecian  state,  before  they  march  against  an  enemy,  im- 
plored a  blessing  of  the  gods  by  human  victims."     Livy 


316  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

tells  US  that  in  the  consulate  of  Emilius  Paulus  and  Teren- 
tius  YaiTo,  two  Gauls  and  two  Greeks  were  burned  alive  at 
Rome.  For  a  long  time  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the 
captives  who  graced  the  triumphs  of  the  Romans,  were 
afterwards  sacrificed  to  Jupiter  Capitolinus.  Cains  Marius 
sacrificed  his  own  daughter  in  order  to  obtain  success  in  a 
battle  with  tlie  Cimbri.  Even  Augustus  Caesar  offered  up 
three  hundred  chosen  persons  on  an  altar  dedicated  to  the 
manes  of  his  uncle,  Julius  Caesar.  The  Gauls  and  Ger- 
mans entered  into  no  business  of  importance  without  hu- 
man victims,  and  the  Druid  priests  presided  at  the  cruel 
ceremony.  The  places  selected  for  the  purpose  were  dark 
aud  gloom}^  forests,  and  were  held  in  highest  reverence. 
All  the  nations  of  Northern  Europe  thus  sacrificed  to  Thor 
and  Woden,  Harold,  a  king,  slew  two  of  his  children  to 
procure  a  storm  of  wind  to  destroy  an  enemy's  fleet.  Adam 
Briraensis  speaks  of  the  awful  grove  of  Upsal,  where  these 
horrid  rites  were  celebrated,  and  says,  "  There  was  not  a 
tree  which  was  not  reverenced,  and  as  if  it  were  gifted 
with  some  portion  of  the  divinity,  because  they  were 
stained  with  gore."  "  These  accounts,  wdth  many  others," 
says  Bryant,  "  were  handed  down  to  us  from  numerous 
authors  in  different  ages,  many  of  them  natives  of  the 
countries  whicli  they  describe.  The  like  custom  prevailed 
in  a  great  degree  in  Mexico,  and  even  under  the  mild  gov- 
ernment of  Peru,  and  in  most  parts  of  America.  In  Africa 
it  is  still  kept  up.  In  the  inland  parts  they  still  sacrifice 
captives  taken  in  war  to  their  fetishes,  in  order  to  secure 
their  favor.  Mulgrave  says,  while  in  the  king  of  Daho- 
mey's camp,  he  saw  multitudes  sacrificed  to  the  deity  of 
his  nation.  "  The  sacrifices,"  says  Mr.  Bryant,  "  of  which 
I  liave  been  treating,  if  we  except  some  few  instances,  con- 
sisted of  persons  doomed  by  the  chances  of  war,  or  assigned 
by  lot  to  be  offered  up.  But  among  the  Canaanites  the 
victims  are  peculiarly  chosen.     Their  own  children  and 


ANIMAL   SACRIFICES.  817 

whatever  was  nearest  and  dearest  to  them,  were  consid- 
ered the  most  worthy  offering  to  tlieir  god.  If  tlie  parents 
were  not  at  liand  to  make  an  immediate  offering,  the  mag- 
istrates did  not  fail  to  make  choice  of  wliat  was  most  fair 
and  promising,  that  tlie  god  might  not  be  defrauded  of  liis 
dues."  The  Cartliaginians,  upon  a  great  defeat  of  their 
army  by  Agathocles,  imputed  tliese  miscarriages  to  the 
anger  of  their  gods.  Touched  with  this,  and  seeing  the 
enemy  at  their  gates,  they  seized  at  once  two  hundred 
children  of  their  prime  nobility,  and  offered  them  a  public 
sacrifice.  Three  hundred  more, — being  persons  who  were 
somehow  obnoxious, — yielded  themselves  voluntarily,  and 
were  put  to  death  with  the  others.  The  neglect  with  which 
they  accused  themselves  consisted  in  sacrificing  children 
purchased  from  parents  of  the  poorer  sort,  who  reared  them 
for  that  purpose,  and  not  selecting  the  most  promising  and 
honorable  as  had  been  the  custom  of  old.  An  ancient 
poet  has  noticed  this  of  the  city  of  Dido,  in  the  following 
lines : 

"  Mos  erat  in  populis  quos  condidit  advena  Dido, 
Poscere  cede  Deos  veniara,  et  flagrantibus  aris, 
Infandum  dictu,  parvos  imponere  natos." 

These  cruel  rites,  practised  in  so  many  nations,  made 
Plutarch  debate  within  himself,  says  Bryant,  whether  it 
would  not  have  been  better  for  the  Galatse  or  the  Scythians 
to  have  had  no  tradition  or  conception  of  any  superior 
beings,  than  to  have  formed  to  themselves  gods  who  de- 
lighted in  the  blood  of  men,  who  esteemed  hunum  victims 
the  most  acceptable  offering  and  sacrifice.  "  Would  it 
not,"  says  Plutarch,  "have  been  more  eligible  for  the  Car- 
thaginians to  have  had  the  atheist  Critias,  or  Diagoras, 
their  lawgiver  at  the  beginning  of  their  polity,  and  to  have 
been  taught  that  there  was  neither  god  nor  demon,  than  to 
have  sacrificed  in  the  manner  they  were  wont  to  the  god 


318  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

which  thej  adored.  These  people  used,  knoAvnigly  and 
willingl}^,  to  go  through  this  bloody  work  and  slaughter 
their  own  offspring.  Even  those  who  were  childless 
would  not  be  exempted  from  this  cursed  tribute,  but  pur- 
chased children  at  any  price  from  the  poorer  sort,  and  put 
them  to  death  with  as  little  remorse  as  one  would  kill  a 
lamb  or  a  chicken.  Tiie  mother  who  sacrificed  her  child 
stood  by  without  any  seeming  sense  of  what  she  was  doing, 
says  Plutarch,  without  uttering  a  groan.  If  a  sigh  did  by 
chance  escape,  she  lost  all  the  honor  which  she  purchased 
for  herself  in  offering  up  her  child;  but  it  was,  notwitli- 
standing,  slain.  All  the  time  of  the  celebration,  while  the 
children  were  being  slain,  there  was  a  noise  of  clarionets 
and  tabors  sounding  before  the  idol,  that  the  cries  and 
shrieks  of  the  victims  might  not  be  heard.  "  Tell  me  now," 
says  Plutarch,  "  if  tlie  monsters  of  old — the  typhous  and 
giants  of  old — were  to  expel  the  gods  and  rule  the  world 
in  their  stead,  could  they  require  a  service  more  horrid 
than  these  infernal  rites  and  ceremonies  ?  "  These  were 
the  sins  of  the  holy  things  among  the  heathen, — the  abom- 
inable idolatries  spoken  of  in  scripture, — and  which  some 
infidels  and  philosophers  would  justify  as  agreeable  to  the 
dictates  of  the  consciences  of  the  worshippers  themselves, 
and  therefore  acceptable  to  God.  These  tender  mercies  of 
parents  who  wanted  natural  affection ;  this  calling  good 
evil,  and  evil  good  ;  this  offering  the  fruit  of  the  body  for  the 
sins  of  the  soul,  was  the  religion  of  ancient  pagans,  is  the 
religion  of  modern  paganism,  is  the  religion  of  those  "  who 
hope  to  merit  heaven  by  making  earth  a  hell."  "  O  my 
soul,  come  not  thou  into  their  secret !  " 


CHAPTEK    XXII. 

ON    THE    RELIGION    OP    THE    AMERICAS. 

In  the  division  of  the  earth  between  the  descendants  of 
JS^oali,  nothing  is  said  in  scripture  concerning  the  conti- 
nent of  North  x\nierica.  What  was  its  condition  before 
the  flood,  whether  it  was  buried  beneath  the  ocean,  and 
raised  to  the  surface  by  the  operation  of  the  waters  of  the 
dehige,  is  not  told  ns  and  cannot  be  known.  Evidences 
of  its  preadamite  existence  may  be  found  in  the  bowels 
of  the  earth. 

The  immense  bones  of  animals,  and  evidences  of  huge 
unknown  plants,  and  the  masses  of  coal  and  other  miner- 
als, attest  revolutions  which  could  not  be  effected  by  the 
flood.  Evidences  of  the  flood  may  also  be  seen  in  the 
fossil  remains  of  many  animals  and  plants  which  lie  near 
the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  which  may  have  perished  on 
American  soil,  or  floated  hither  on  the  tumultuous  waters 
of  the  deluge  from  the  old  world.  Whether  any  remains 
of  man  are  to  be  found  I  am  not  able  to  say ;  if  so,  they 
may  have  also  come  from  the  old  world.  Tradition  is  of 
no  service  to  us  in  determining  this  and  other  things 
touching  America.  We  read,  indeed,  of  some  immense 
island,  called  Atlantis,  in  the  direction  of  our  continent, 
from  Europe  and  Africa,  and  there  is  a  tradition  of  a 
chain  of  mountains  stretching  over  the  Atlantic  and  con- 
necting the  two  worlds;  but  no  reliance  is  to  be  placed  on 
such  accounts.     That  a  commencement  of  the  peopling 


320  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

of  America  may  have  been  made  within  a  few  centuries 
after  the  dehige  is  altogether  pi-obable. 

That  the  art  of  ship-building  was  known  before  the 
flood,  none  can  question  who  believe  in  the  Mosaic  account 
of  the  ark,  the  largest  ship  that  ever  rode  upon  the  waves, 
and  which  out-rode  the  mightiest  tempest  that  ever 
agitated  the  great  deep.  That  navigation  prevailed  be- 
fore the  flood,  necessarily  resulted  from  or  accompanied  it. 
That  ship-building  and  navigation  began  again  after  the 
flood  as  soon  as  any  of  the  human  race  reached  the  Med- 
iterranean, the  Euxine,  the  Southern  or  Eastern  Oceans, 
who  can  question ;  and  if  shipwrecks  on  islands  and 
foreign  shores  have  occurred,  even  since  the  mariner's 
compass  has  been  discovered,  how  much  more  frequent 
they  must  have  been  before. 

That  some  of  the  settlements  in  tlie  islands  of  Europe 
were  the  result  of  shipwrecks,  is  confidently  asserted  in  an- 
cient history.  And  when  the  ancients  doubled  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope  from  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  came  around 
the  continent  of  Africa  to  the  Mediterranean,  and  sailed 
along  the  coast  of  Europe  and  Asia,  which  they  most  cer- 
tainly did  at  an  early  period,  who  can  doubt  but  that  many 
vessels  were  driven  by  adverse  winds  across  the  Atlantic 
and  Pacific,  until  crews  were  found  increased  into  nations 
in  the  two  Americas.  Such  may  have  been  the  method 
adopted  by  Providence,  in  whose  hands  are  the  winds  and 
waves,  to  do  his  will,  for  the  settlement  of  the  human 
race  in  America,  even  before  that  (about  which  all  seem 
to  agree)  most  probable  source  of  supply  to  the  northern 
portion  of  the  continent,  viz.,  emigration  from  the  North 
of  Asia  through  Behring's  straits  into  the  North  of 
America. 

The  distance  between  the  two  continents  of  America 
and  Asia  does  not  exceed  twenty  miles,  and  a  string  of 
islands  across  this  short  space  renders  the  passage  yet 


RELIGION   OF   THE   AMERICAS.  321 

easier  and  tlie  temptation  to  the  enterprise  yet  greater. 
But  a  passage  from  Europe  \o  America  lias  also  been 
proved  to  be  mucli  easier  tlian  some  liave  imagined.  Even 
to  this  day  there  are  those,  and  persons  of  some  reading 
too,  who  believe  that  Columbus  was  the  first  discoverer 
of  America ;  whereas  nothing  is  better  established  than 
the  fact  that  from  an  early  period  in  the  tenth  century, 
exploring  voyages  from  the  North  of  Europe  visited  vari- 
ous northern  parts  of  North  America.  The  Anti-Colum- 
banic  Society  of  Copenhagen,  established  some  twenty  or 
thirty  years  since,  has  published  to  the  world  a  number 
of  volumes  containing  the  reports  of  these  voyages,  and 
of  the  points  at  which  they  touched,  with  some  account 
of  the  natives  and  the  productions  of  the  soil. 

Mr.  Jefferson,  in  his  "  Notes  on  Virginia,"  says,  "  Dis- 
coveries long  ago  were  sufficient  to  show  that  a  passage 
from  Europe  to  America  was  always  practicable,  even  to 
the  imperfect  navigation  of  ancient  times,  by  the  way  of 
Iceland,  Greenland,  and  Labrador."  And  again :  "  The 
late  discoveries  of  Captain  Cook,  coasting  from  Kamt- 
schatka  to  California,  have  proved  that  if  the  two  con- 
tinents of  Asia  and  America  are  separated  at  all,  it  is 
only  by  a  narrow  strait."  Mr.  Gallatin  thinks  that  "  the 
North  American  Indians  may  have  been  drawn  from  the 
old  world  w^ithin  five  hundred  years  after  the  dispersion 
from  Babel."  They  may  have  gotten  here  either  from  Eu- 
rope, or  Asia.  One  of  our  most  practical  philosophers, 
Lieutenant  Maury,  in  his  admirable  treatise  on  the  winds, 
waves,  and  tides,  has  added  great  force  to  the  hyj)othesis 
of  Professor  Schoolcraft  and  others  as  to  the  early  set- 
tlement of  the  North  American  Indians  from  Asia.  He 
says,  in  reply  to  some  questions  jDroposed  to  him  on  the 
subject,  that  a  man  with  a  sufficient  supply  of  provisions 
might  cross  the  sea,  in  certain  latitudes  much  south  of 
the  straits,  on  a  log,  by  means  of  the  trade  winds  and  the 
21 


822  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

equable  current  in  that  region.  Sir  Alexander  M'Kenzie 
tells  us  "  that  one  of  the  Arctic  tribes  believes  that  its 
ancestors  came  from  another  country,  crossing  a  lake  full 
of  islands,  where  it  was  always  winter."  Of  another 
tribe,  "  they  have  a  tradition,"  he  says,  "  that  they  came 
from  Siberia." 

Professor  Schoolcraft,  quoting  Voltaire's  "Essay  on  the 
History  of  China,"  says,  "They  were  acquainted  with  the 
power  of  tlie  magnet,  and  tlie  mariner's  "compass."  Du- 
hald,  in  his  "  History  of  China,"  says,  "  Naval  architec- 
ture has  belonged  to  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  time  out  of 
mind."  No  donl^t  it  did,  for  they  received  it  from  the  ante- 
diluvians, through  Noah  and  his  family.  In  relation  to  the 
early  settlement  of  America,  both  North  and  South,  we 
may  well  assent  to  the  probability  of  the  opinion  of  one 
who.said  tliat  "The  foot  of  man  has  long  since  trodden 
many  a  soil  supposed  never  to  have  been  pressed  before."'^' 

*  Sir  JIattlicw  Hale   llius   expresses    his  opinion  as  to  tlie  clmiiges  in  the 
earth  and  sea.     He  quotes  Ovid  as  saying, 

"  Vidl  ego  quod  fuerat  quondam  solidissima  tellus, 
Esse  fretum  ;  vidi  factas  ex  quore  terras." 

"  Some  towns,"  he  says,  "  that  were  anciently  havens  and  ports  where  ships 
did  ride,  aie  now,  by  exaggeration  of  saud  between  these  towns  and  the  sea,  con- 
verted into  firm  land,  two,  three,  and  four  miles  distant  from  the  sea.  The  delta  of 
Egypt,  and  all  Holland  were  once  under  water."  He  inclines  to  the  belief  of  the 
great  island  of  Atlanta,  near  Spain  and  Africa,  beyond  the  straits  of  Gibraltar, 
and  which  might  almost  have  connected  Africa  and  Europe  with  America,  and 
afibrded  an  easy  passage  between  them.  Again,  he  says,  "There  might  have 
been,  in  former  times,  necks  of  land  whereby  communication  between  the  parts 
of  the  earth,  and  mutual  passage  and  repassage  for  men  and  animals,  might  have 
been,  which  in  a  period  of  4000  years  may  have  been  altered  ;  that  these  parts 
of  Asia  and  America  which  are  now  disjoined  by  the  interluency  of  the  sea, 
mi<;ht  have  been  formerly  in  some  age  of  the  world  contiguous  to  each  other, 
and  those  spots  of  ground,  viz.,  the  Philippine  Islands,  and  others  that  are  now 
crumbled  into  small  islands,  might  anciently  have  been  one  entire  continent." 
Much  of  trans])lantation,  he  thinks,  was  by  navigation,  either  casual,  bj'  tem- 
pests or  contrary  winds,  or  with  design.  "Navigation  is  of  that  great  anti- 
quity, that  it  is  didicult  to  assign  when  it  began  to  be  in  use.  The  ark  of  Noah 
was  certainly  a  most  exact  piece  of  architecture,  and  might  give  a  pattern  and 
instruction  for  vessels  of  great  burthen."  "Jacob,"  he  saj's,  "who  died  600 
veai'S  after  the  flood,  n^entions  ships  and  havens  for  ships  as  things  well  known. 


RELIGION   OF   THE   AMERICAS.  323 

As  to  Kortli  Americun  Indians,  there  is  something  in  them 
so  resemhling  the  ancient  Jews, — the  descendants  of  Shcm, 
many  of  whom  settled  in  China  as  is  believed, — that  some 
have  supposed  thc}^  were  of  that  race,  and  belong  to  the 
lost  tribes.  Kotliing  certain  being  known  of  them  since 
the  Babylonian  captivity,  it  is  thought  tliey  penetrated 
to  the  ISTorth  of  Asia,  and  crossed  over  to  America. 
Hugo  Grotius,  and  our  American,  Mr.  Boudinot,  adopted 
this  opinion,  and  have  written  in  defence  of  it.  Al- 
though the  resemblance  is  acknowledged  to  be  striking 
in  many  respects,  yet  the  proofs  are  not  so  well  made 
out  as  to  be  satisfactory.  The  pious  Cotton  Mather,  of 
Boston,  used  to  say,  "  Our  Indians  were  the  ruins  of  man- 
kind ;  and  although  we  know  not  how  or  when  they  became 
inhabitants  of  this  mighty  continent,  yet  we  may  guess 
that  the  devil  decoyed  them  hither  in  hopes  that  the  gos- 
pel of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  Avould  never  come  to  destroy 
his  absolute  empire  over  them."  In  this  we  trust  the  Evil 
One  will  be  disappointed  ;  and  though  but  little  has  been 
done  towards  the  conversion  of  this  race  to  that  gospel 
M'hich  has  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light,  yet  we 
trust  that  the  means  which  have  been  adopted  and  are  still 
used  will  be  crowned  with  entire  success,  in  God's  good 
time,  and  through  the  influence  of  his  Spirit,  l^or  was  the 
devil  able  to  prevent  their  forefathers  from  bringing  to 
this  land,  or  their  children  from  retaining,  some  relics  of 
the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  ancient  saints,  wherewith 
to  answer  the  infidels  of  our  day,  who  will  not  believe  that 
God  ever  communicated  a  revelation  of  himself  to  the 
parents  of  the  human  race,  or  any  of  their  successors. 
The  resemblance  between  some  of  the  leading  princi- 


He  speaks  of  an  ancient  mariner  who  planted  a  colony  in  Greenland  in  the  year 
082,  and  established  the  Christian  religion  there,  from  whence  colonies  may 
have  been  traduced  into  the  northern  parts  of  America."  Some  migration,  he 
thinks,  may  have  been  within  three  or  four  hundred  years  after  the  flood. 


324  THE    BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

pies  and  customs  and  traditions  of  the  Indians  and  of  the 
old  world  is  too  striking  not  to  satisfy  the  candid  inquirer 
after  truth  that  they  must  have  had  one  common  origin.  A 
late  writer  among  us  asserts  the  identity  of  some  of  the 
elementary  conceptions  of  the  primitive  nations  of  the  old 
and  new  world,  and  admits  that  tlie  conclusion,  from  the 
many  striking  resemblances  which  appear,  would  naturally 
be,  that  their  institutions,  notions,  and  monuments  are  found-' 
ed  on  an  original  connection.  This,  however,  he  doubts, 
rather  inclining  to  the  opinion  that  the  similarity  results 
from  the  uniformity  of  the  human  mind  and  character, 
which  tends  to  the  same  results  of  its  own  accord.  He 
evidently  inclines  to  the  belief  that  the  American  families 
were  distinct  in  their  origin,  and  did  not  descend  from  the 
single  pair  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  spoken  of  in 
scripture.*  Let  the  reader  judge,  from  what  has  already 
been  said  as  to  the  points  of  resemblance  between  the  na- 
tions of  the  old  world,  and  what  will  follow  as  to  the  iden- 
tity between  them  and  many  things  in  the  new,  whether 
such  a  conclusion  is  not  both  unscriptural  and  unphilo- 
sophical. 

I  shall  be  chiefly  indebted  for  the  facts  about  to  be 
stated,  in  relation  to  the  northern  tribes  of  America,  to  the 
researches  of  that  learned  and  laborious  investigator  of 
their  history.  Professor  Sclioolcraft,  of  AVashington,  who 
has  been  for  so  many  years  in  the  employ  of  the  Ameri- 
can Congress  for  this  purpose.  In  the  good  providence  of 
God  it  has  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  sound-minded  believer 
in  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and  not  into  tliose  of  a  specula- 
tive sceptic.  Already  has  he  furnished  six  folio  vohinies 
of  information  touching  the  native  tribes  of  North  Amer- 
ica, illustrating  the  same  with  plates,  which  add  much 
interest  to  the  work. 

*  E.  G.  Squier,  author  of  several  works  on  the  Aborigines  and  Monuments  of 
North  America, 


RELIGION   OF   THE   AMERICAS.  325 


THE  Indian's  knowledge  of  the  one  tkue  god. 

''  "We  have  seen  how  tlie  ancient  mythologies  of  tlic  old 
world  refer  to  some  supreme  Numen  or  first  cause  of  all 
things,  who  does  not  seem  to  interfere  much  witli  human 
affairs  except  through  inferior  agents  or  deities.  AVe  have 
also  seen  how  different  is  the  Mosaic  account  of  God, 
whose  name  was  "  I  Am,"  or,  "I  Am  tHxVt  I  Am," — the  eter- 
nal, self-existent  God.  Now  the  Indians  seem  to  have  come 
nearer  to  the  Mosaic  account  than  most  other  nations, 
though  like  the  rest  they  have  disfigured  it  by  their  addi- 
tions. The  name  of  their  god  is  "  Jan,"  or  "  The  Great  I 
Am."  Schoolcraft  says  it  admits  of  no  question  that  "  when 
properly  viewed,  the  Great  Spirit  of  the  Indians  is  a  purer 
deity  than  that  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  with  all  their 
refinement."  As  far  as  the  great  good  spirit  is  concerned, 
they  hold  the  doctrine  of  the  Unity  better  than  many  of 
the  ancient  philosophers.  The  Indian  is  a  believer  in  the 
mysterious  and  the  wonderful.  To  him,  the  world  is  re- 
plete with  wonders  and  mysteries.  Every  phenomenon  in 
nature  which  he  cannot  explain  is  the  act  of  God ;  God  is 
everywhere  present, — in  the  thunder  and  the  lightning, 
in  every  sound  of  the  forest,  etc.  But  then  he  follows  the 
example  of  the  old  world  by  super-additions  ;  lie  has  his 
inferior  deities  to  do  what  the  great  God, — the  Great  I 
Am — does  not  choose  to  do.  He  sees  these  in  all  the  ani- 
mals of  the  earth,  or  in  the  air,  or  seas,  and  they  do  good 
or  ill  to  man  as  they  are  good  or  ill  themselves.  This,  of 
course,  fills  their  religion  with  superstition,  and  their  wor- 
ship, like  that  of  the  heathen  of  old,  would  be  given  more 
to  the  lesser  deities  than  to  the  great  God.  As  to  the  prac- 
tical part  of  their  religion,  it  is  in  many  respects  superior 
to  that  of  the  Hindoos  and  of  the  Europeans.  They  never 
destroy  their  children,  nor  do  the  widows  immolate  them- 


326  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE    CLASSICS. 

selves.     They  never  drown  their  old  men,  or,  in  false  pen- 
ance, swing  themselves  up  on  hooks  of  steel.    These  pln= 
losopliers  of  the  woods,  as  they  have   been  called,  rea- 
soned very  much  as  the  philosophers  of  Greece,  Kome,  and 
Egypt  did.     They  say  that  God  must  be  in  every  remarka- 
ble thing  in  nature.    "  Fire,"  they  say,  "  must  be  God,  or  else 
it  would  not  produce  such  wonderful  effects."     "  The  Yir- 
ginia  Indians,"  says  Ilarriotte,  "  believed  not  only  in  the 
existence  of  one  god,  but  in  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  as  sub- 
ordinate deities.  They  also  believed  that  the  gods  were  all  in 
the  human  form, — wherefore  they  made  images  of  them  and 
offered  presents  to  them."    The  Indians  seem  to  reason  as  if 
acquainted  with  tlie  history  of  man  at  his  first  creation, 
saying  that  "  God  made  him  exactly  as  he  ought."     He 
looks  back  to  a  golden  age  ;  his  present  life,  is  one  of  suf- 
fering;   the  next  is   one  of  compensation  and   rewards. 
He  does  not  believe  in  future  punishment,  but  hold  the 
same  opinion  on  this  subject  as  did  many  of  the  ancient 
nations  and  philosophers.     His  god  is  exclusively  one  of 
kindness,  not  of  holiness.    It  never  enters  into  his  head  that 
justice  is  one  of  the  attributes  of  the  Deity.     He  sings  his 
funeral  song  at  the  stake  with  the  assurance  of  happiness 
to  come.     The  Indians  account  for  evil  in  very  much  the 
same  way  with  many  of  the  philosophers  and  mythologists 
of  the  old  world,  affirming  that  the  great  God  is  only 
good.     They  exempt  him  from  malice,  by  supposing  an 
evil  spirit  who  is  inferior  to  him.     Their  pictorial  and 
hieroglyphical  symbols  represent  their  Great  Spirit,  called 
"  Wazatoad,"  the  original  animating  principle,  as  invaria- 
bly good.    He  is  sometimes  called  Menedo.  The  evil  princi- 
ple is  sometimes  called  Menedo,  and  indeed  all  the  ma- 
lignant spirits  are    so  called.     When  their  god  is  called 
Menedo,  they  use  the  prefix  Great.     They  never  call  the 
evil  spirit  Wazatoad ; — that  name  is  only  given   to   the 
great  and  good  god.     This  is  almost  identical  with  the 


RELIGION   OF   THE   AMERICAS.  327 

Persian  doctrine  of  good  and  evil,  as  taught  by  Zoroaster. 
The  tradition  of  the  Iroquois  Indians  difters  somewhat  from 
this.  Thej  say  that  two  great  principles  or  demons,  sub- 
ject however  to  the  great  Jan,  or  I  Am,  were  born  at  the 
creation,  and  are  ever  opposing  each  other.  To  this,  let 
me  add  that  the  Camanche  tribe  of  Indians  acknowledge 
a  supreme  ruler,  whom  they  call  the  Great  Si)irit,  but  say 
they  cannot  worship  him,  he  is  too  far  off,  but  that  they 
can  worship  the  sun,  who  is  between  them  and  the  Supreme 
Being.  They  are,  like  many,  of  the  ancient  philosophers 
and  idolaters,  Universalists,  believing  that  they  will  all  go, 
at  death,  to  a  place  where  they  will  all  be  happy.  Their 
funeral  ceremonies  are  much  the  same  with  those  in  Asia. 
The  Indians  generally  have  very  false  views  of  the  purity 
and  holiness  of  God,  as  was  the  case  with  their  ancestors 
in  the  old  world.  They  believe  that  he  is  good,  but  not 
responsible  for  or  careful  of  the  moral  government  of  the 
world  ;  that  he  is  not  a  lawgiver  and  a  judge ;  that  to  lie 
and  steal  and  commit  murder  are  not  offences  against  him. 
He  commits  all  this  to  inferior  deities,  and  these  are  all 
mixed  up  together  in  a  kind  of  chaos.  These  good  and 
evil  spirits  are  all  under  the  direction  of  the  superior  good 
and  evil  spirits,  and  the  earth,  air,  clouds,  winds,  and  trees 
are  always  full  of  them.  They  are  all,  whether  good  or 
evil,  called  Manettos.  The  name  Manetto  is  continually 
in  their  mouths,  and  the  things  themselves  before  their 
imagination.  The  Indian's  religion  has  much  to  do  with 
the  doctrine  and  worship  of  the  serpent.  In  Adams 
county,  Ohio,  there  is  a  hill  or  elevation  seven  hundred 
feet  long,  representing  the  coil  of  a  serpent;  its  jaw^s  are 
widely  extended  as  in  the  act  of  swallowing  ;  in  the  open- 
ing is  an  oval  mound  representing  the  "Eastern  egg^^  of 
Ormazd.     Here  we  have  the  Persic  or  Chaldean  idea. 

I  need  not  speak  of  the  numerous  mounds  which  here, 
as  in  all  other  parts  of  the  w^orld,  have  been  used  for  the 


328  THE   BIBLE   AND    THE   CLASSICS. 

worship  of  the  sun,  and  three  tliousand  of  which  have  been 
discovered  in  the  two  Americas. 

The  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  tlie  soul,  so  com- 
mon in  the  old  world,  is  found  also  in  the  new.  They 
believe  that  many  souls  pass  into  other  bodies,  either  of 
men  or  animals.  They  believe  also  in  the  duality  of  the 
soul.  There  are  two  souls  to  every  man  :  the  one  remains 
with  the  body  in  the  grave,  while  the  other  forsakes  it ; 
wherefore  they  leave  a  hole  in  the  grave,  where  they  de- 
posit food  for  a  certain  time. 

Tliey  have  very  vague  notions  about  a  future  state,  all 
being  dark  and  mysterious  to  them.  Many  believe  they 
will  have  the  same  enemies  in  that  state  which  they  had 
on  earth,  and  they  therefore  have  their  weapons  of  war 
buried  with  them.  They  know  nothing  of  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  forgiveness.  The  destruction  and  torture  of 
enemies  is  their  gloiy,  their  happiness.  They  have  also 
traditions  of  the  deluge  ;  that  the  earth  was  once  destroy- 
ed by  water,  and  will  be  again  destroyed  by  lire.  The 
Chickasaws  say  that  the  earth  M-as  once  destroyed  by 
water,  and  that  only  one  man  and  tw^o  of  every  kind  of 
animals  were  saved. 

As  hieroglyphics  and  pictorial  language  or  symbols 
were  nsed  in  Egypt,  and  still  are  used  in  China,  so  are 
they  among  the  Indians,  and  the  labor  of  the  learned  is 
every  year  deciphering  it  better,  and  discovering  more 
and  more  of  the  histor}^  and  religion  of  the  nations  who 
used  them. 

I  make  one  remark  as  to  the  languages  of  the  Indians, 
which  Mr.  Schoolcraft  'and  our  missionaries  have  been 
carefully  studying,  and  into  which  our  scriptures  and 
other  books  ai-e  being  translated.  It  is  in  America,  as  in 
other  parts  of  the  world, — examination  into  the  words  and 
grammar  of  the  different  nations  is  continually  reducing 
the  number  of  original  languages,  and  showing  the  truth 


RELIGION"  OF  THE   AMERICAS.  329 

of  Sir  William  Jones'  declaration  tliat  there  would  not 
be  found  more  than  three,  which  were  in  use  soon  after 
the  dispersion  from  Babel,  and  from  which  all  others  have 
spruuiT.  When  we  consider  that  before  this  there  was 
only  one,  and  that  one  the  tongue  of  Noah  and  his  sons, 
and  of  his  antediluvian  forefathers  up  to  our  first  parents 
in  paradise,  more  force  is  added  to  the  argument  for 
the  unity  of  the  liuman  race,  proving  that  all  the  nations 
of  the  earth  are  of  one  blood,  descended  from  those  who 
were  made  by  the  hands  of  God  in  paradise. 

I  conclude  this  chapter  with  an  extract  from  Mr.  School- 
craft's book,  containing  two  specimens  of  the  Indian  char- 
acter and  eloquence,  which  I  am  sure  will  delight  the 
reader.  Tlie  lii'st  is  from  the  last  speech  of  Passacon- 
naway,  the  chief  of  the  Fenacook  tribe  of  Indians,  on 
the  Merrimack,  in  ISTew  England,  where  the  good  mission- 
ary. Ml".  Eliot,  labored.  This  celebrated  chief  became 
a  Christian  under  Mr.  Eliot's  teaching.  In  the  year 
1660  there  was  a  vast  assemblage  of  the  Indians  at  Pau- 
tucket,  when,  borne  down  with  age  and  cares,  the  old 
Sagamore,  at  a  public  feast,  made  a  farewell  speech  to 
his  people.  "  Hearken,"  he  said,  "  to  the  words  of  your 
father :  I  am  an  old  oak,  which  has  withstood  the  storms 
of  more  than  a  hundred  winters.  Leaves  and  branches 
have  been  stripped  from  me  by  the  winds  and  frosts ;  my 
eyes  are  dim,  my  limbs  totter — I  must  soon  fall.  But, 
when  young  and  sturdy,  when  no  man  of  the  Penacooks 
could  bend  my  bow,  when  my  arrows  could  pierce  a  deer 
at  a  hundred  yards,  and  I  could  bury  my  hatchet  in  a 
sapling  to  the  eye,  no  wigwam  had  so  many  furs,  no  pole 
60  many  scalplocks,  as  Passaconnaway's.  Then  I  delighted 
in  war.  The  whoop  of  the  Penacook  was  heard  upon  the 
Mohawk,  and  no  voice  was  so  loud  as  Passaconnaway's. 
The  scalps  upon  the  pole  of  my  wigwam  told  the  story 
of  Mohawk  suffering.     The  English  came ;    they  seized 


330  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

our  lands:  I  sat  me  clown  at  Penacook.     They  followed 
upon  my  footsteps.     I  made  w^ar  upon  tliem,  but  they 
fought  with  fire  and  thunder.    My  young  men  were  swept 
down  before  me  when  none  were  near  them.     I  tried  sor- 
cery against  them,  but  still  they  increased  and  prevailed, 
over  me  and  mine,  and  I  gave  place  to  them  and  retired 
to  my  beautiful  island  of  Natticock.     I,  that  can  make  the 
dry  leaf  green,  and  live  again  ;  I,  that  can  take  the  rattle- 
snake in  my  hand  as  I  would  a  worm,  without  harm  ;  I, 
who  held  communion  with  the  Great  Spirit,  sleeping  and 
waking, — I  am  powerless  before  the  pale  faces.    The  oak 
will  soon  bend  before  the  whirlwind  ;  it  shivers,  it  shakes  ; 
soon  its  trunk  will  be  prostrate ;  the  ant  and  the  worm 
will  sport  upon  it.     Then  think,  my  children,  of  what  I 
say ;  I  commune  with  the  Great  Spirit ;  he  whispers  me 
now,  Tell  your  people  '  peace,  peace  is  the  only  hope  of 
your  race.     I  have  given  fire  and  thunder  to  the  pale 
faces  for  weapons ;  I  have  made  them  plentier  than  the 
leaves  of  the  forest,  and  still  they  shall  increase.     These 
meadows  they  shall  turn  with  the  plough ;  these  forests 
shall  fall  by  the  axe.     The  pale  faces  shall  live  upon  your 
hunting-grounds,  and  make  their  villages  upon  your  fish- 
ing-places.'    The  Great  Spirit  says  this,  and  it  must  be  so. 
We  are  few  and  powerless  before  them ;  we  must  bend 
before  the  storm.     The  wind  blows  hard.     The  old  oak 
trembles ;  its  branches  are  gone ;   its  sap  is  frozen.     It 
bends — it  falls!     Peace  with  the  white  man  is  the  com- 
mand of  the  Great  Spirit, — is  the  wish,  and  the  last  wish 
of  Passaconnaway." 

The  other  passage  is  from  an  Oneida  chief,  Skenandoah, 
who  was  a  convert  to  the  Christian  faith  under  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Kirkland.  He  took  part  with  the  Americans  in  the 
war  of  the  Eevolution,  and  lived  to  the  age  of  one  hun- 
dred and  ten  years,  and,  dying  in  March,  1816,  desired  to 
be  buried  by  the  side  of  his  old  pastor,  that,  as  he  said, 


RELIGION   OF  THE   AMERICAS.  831 

he  mig-lit  be  near  him  in  tlie  great  resurrection.  On 
some  occasion,  when  a  number  of  persons  were  present, 
he  uttered  these  words  :  "  I  am  an  okl  hemlock ;  the  winds 
of  a  hundred  winters  have  whistled  through  my  branches; 
I  am  dead  at  the  top ;  the  generation  to  which  I  belong 
have  run  their  course  and  have  left  me.  Why  I  live  thus 
long  the  Great  Spirit  only  knows.  Pray  to  my  Jesus  that 
I  may  have  patience  to  await  ray  appointed  time  to  die." 


CHAPTER     XXIII. 

ON    THE    RELIGION    OF    MEXICO    AND    PERU. 

That  Mexico  was  settled  long  before  tlie  period  sup- 
posed by  our  fathers  is  now  generally  agreed.  The  re- 
mains of  its  ancient  buildings  and  monuments  testify  to 
this.  Its  early  and  most  noted  settlers,  though  not  its 
original  ones,  came  from  the  northern  part  of  America. 
By  mingling  with  the  primitive  ones  they  may  have  bor- 
rowed some  of  their  religious  observances  from  them ; 
whether  they  came  immediately  from  the  old  world,  be- 
ing the  offspring  of  a  few  shipwrecked  ones,  or  whether 
they  came  from  South  America.  Pritchard  says,  they 
have  a  tradition  that  their  ancestors  came  from  the  East 
in  vessels  or  canoes.  Mr.  John  Johnson,  agent  of  our 
government  for  the  Shawnees,  says  they  have  a  tradition 
that  their  ancestors  crossed  the  sea  and  settled  in  Florida. 
Montezuma  told  Cortes  that  there  was  an  ancient  con-, 
nexion  between  the  Spaniards  and  the  Mexicans,  only  he 
affirmed  that  the  Spaniards  sprung  from  the  Mexicans. 

As  to  the  ancient  documents  and  pictorial  representa- 
tions, of  which  there  were  many,  Pritchard  says,  "  The 
Spaniards  sought  for  them  and  destroyed  them  with  the 
most  barbarous  zeal  and  perseverance."  Some  of  these 
have  been  more  recently  discovered,  by  the  enterprise  and 
zeal  of  travellers,  especially  of  our  enterprising  country- 
man, Mr.  Stephens,  of  whose  visit  to  Mexico  we  shall  speak 
hereafter.     Ancient  Mexico  contained  only  about  sixteen 


EELIGION   OF  MEXICO   AND   PERU.  333 

tliousancl  square  miles,  (about  twice  the  size  of  Kew  Eng- 
land,) with  every  variety  of  climate  and  productions.  It 
is  not  at  all  wonderful  that  it  became  an  object  of  desire 
to  the  adventurous  ISTorth-men  of  America. 

The  first  of  these  came  in  the  seventh  century,  and  were 
called  Toltecs,  a  name  signifying  architects,  and  justly,  for 
they  were  the  builders  of  those  immense  structures  whose 
remains  are  yet  to  be  seen.  They  were  in  America  what 
the  Cyclopeans  and  other  architects — the  descendants  of 
ISTimrod — were  in  Europe  and  Asia,  and  may  have  de- 
scended from  them  and  inherited  their  skill  and  ambition. 

The  Toltecs  not  only  built  the  temples  of  the  Mexicans, 
but  laid  the  foundation  of  their  religion.  Different  tribes 
soon  followed  them,  among  whom  were  tlie  Aztecs,  a  war- 
like race.  These  tribes  poured  down  from  the  North  on 
the  milder  climates  of  the  South,  as  the  hordes  of  Gauls 
did  on  Italy.  After  four  centuries  the  Toltecs  disappeared, 
both  as  to  name  and  nation,  and  the  Aztecs,  with  some 
smaller  tribes,  only  are  heard  of.  After  a  time,  their 
name  and  the  names  of  the  others  were  all  merged  in 
that  of  Mexicans.  The  name  of  the  country  whence  the 
Toltecs  came,  in  the  seventh  century,  was  Anahuac. 

"  The  ancient  Astecs  or  Mexicans,"  says  Prescott,  in  his 
"  History  of  Mexico,"  "  had  little  of  the  poetry  of  relig- 
ion such  as  marked  that  of  Greece,  but  resembled  the 
religion  of  the  Orientals,  from  which  it  probably  sprang." 
Their  ritual,  like  that  of  the  Asiatics,  was  very  burden- 
some. They  recognized  one  supreme  being,  or  Perfection^ 
according  to  their  language.  He  was  pure,  omnipotent, 
knowing  all  things,  incorporeal,  by  whom  we  live,  and 
the  giver  of  all  things.  Besides  him  there  were  thirteen 
principal  deities,  and  more  than  three  hundred  inferior 
ones.  They  also  believed  in  an  evil  spirit,  who  was  the 
enemy  of  the  human  race.  The  chiefs  of  the  thirteen 
principal  deities  were  the  Mexican  Mars, — the  j)atron  of 


334  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

the  nation, — a  sanguinaiy  monster,  whose  altar  reeked 
with  the  blood  of  human  victims  in  all  the  cities  of  the 
empire.  Prescott  says  that  scarcely  any  author  estimates 
the  yearly  sacrifice  at  less  than  twenty  thousand  victims, 
while  some  place  their  number  at  fifty  thousand.  Their 
object  in  war  was  to  gather  victims  as  much  as  to  extend 
territory.  Therefore  they  always  endeavored  to  take 
them  alive. 

Though  they  were  not  cannibals,  in  the  ordinary  sense 
of  the  term,  yet  they  were  so  in  a  most  shocking  one. 
They  fed  on  human  flesh,  not  to  gratify  a  brutal  appetite, 
but  in  obedience  to  their  religion.  "  Their  repasts,"  says 
Prescott,  "  were  made  on  the  victims  whose  blood  had 
been  shed  on  the  altar  of  sacrifice." 

But  this  Avas  not  brought  to  them  by  the  Toltecs,  for 
they  had  nothing  of  it.  It  was  superadded  to  their  wor- 
ship, and  came  from  other  sources.  It  is  believed  that 
human  sacrifices  were  not  introduced  until  about  two 
hundred  years  before  the  Sj)anish  conquest.  Beside  the 
sanguinary  god  of  war — the  chief  object  of  their  worship 
—they  had  twelve  other  deities,  who  presided  over  the 
different  departments  of  agriculture  and  the  arts,  thereby 
showing  the  derivation  of  their  religion  from  the  ancient 
world.  Their  temples  were  called  "  Houses  of  God," 
and  were  solid  masses  of  earth  covered  with  brick.  On 
their  tops  were  the  images  of  their  gods.  A  stone  altar 
was  also  erected  on  each  one,  and  on  it  perpetual  fire 
burned,  as  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  In  the  great 
temple  at  Mexico  there  were  six  hundred  altars,  in  the 
numerous  apartments  of  which  it  consisted.  Every  month 
was  dedicated  to  some  particular  deity,  and  almost  every 
day  to  some  celebration. 

This  leads  me  to  speak  of  Mr.  Stephens'  visit  to  Central 
America,  and  of  the  ruins  of  a  great  temple  Avhicli  he 
discovered,  among  rubbish,  trees,  and  bushes.      In  the 


RELIGION"   OF   MEXICO  AND   PERU.  335 

yeai'  1839  he  was  employed  by  our  government  to  visit 
and  explore  Central  America.  In  the  introduction  to  his 
book,  detailing  his  labors  and  researches,  he  very  justly 
exposes  the  ignorance  of  Dr.  Kobertson  in  his  "  History 
of  America,"  as  to  the  improvements  and  buildings  in 
Mexico.  Dr.  Robertson  says,  when  discovered  they  were 
in  the  rudest  state  of  society  ;  that  their  houses  were 
mere  huts,  built  of  turf  and  mud  and  branches  of  trees, 
like  those  of  the  Northern  Indians ;  their  temples  noth- 
ing but  a  mound  of  earth  covered  with  grass  and  shrubs. 

Very  different  is  the  account  given  by  Mr.  Stephens 
and  otliers.  His  visit  to  the  city  of  Copar  alone  resulted 
in  the  discovery  of  the  remains  of  ancient  buildings  of 
massive  structure,  covered  with  engravings  and  sacred 
hieroglyphics,  which  show  that  what  their  most  ancient 
writers  and  monuments  testify  of  their  former  condition 
is  correct.  Their  architecture  is  sucli  as  ancient  Greece 
and  Rome  might  not  be  ashamed  of.  In  all  human  prob- 
ability, tlie  principles  of  tlieir  architecture  as  well  as  their 
reliu'ion  were  brought  from  the  old  world.  Their  images 
and  pictures  all  point  to  Egypt  and  Ilindnsian  as  the 
sources  of  their  religious  creed  and  worship. 

There  are  many  other  things  in  the  Mexican  history, 
traditions,  and  customs,  which  also  encourage  the  belief 
of  a  common  origin  with  the  nations  of  this  old  world. 
The  method  of  com]niting  time  by  days,  months,  years, 
and  cycles,  is  the  same  in  China  and  America.  As  to  time 
past,  they  divide  it  into  cycles  and  periods.  Of  these 
there  were  four.  At  the  end  of  each  of  these,  by  the  ac- 
tion of  the  elements,  the  human  family  was  swept  from 
the  earth,  and  the  sun  blotted  out  from  the  heavens  to  be 
rekindled  again.  Who  does  not  see  in  this  the  successive 
production,  destruction,  and  reproduction  of  the  world,  as 
in  the  cosmogony  of  Ilindostan,  and  Chaldea,  and  Egypt  ? 
In  one  of  these  cycles,— the  second, — they  have  a  tradi- 


336  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

tion  of  a  race  of  giants  who  inhabited  the  earth.  This 
perhaps  they  may  have  inferred  from  finding  in  the  earth 
those  huge  skeletons  which  are  now  the  subject  of  specu- 
lation to  geologists.  As  to  the  various  traditions  in  Mexico 
concerning  the  deluge,  Mr.  Gallatin's  conclusion  is,  "  that 
they  originated  in  a  real  historical  recollection  of  an  uni- 
versal deluge  which  overwhelmed  all  mankind  in  the 
early  ages  of  the  world."  The  Mexicans  believed  in  a  fu- 
ture state,  and  divided  men  at  deatli  into  three  classes : 
first,  the  wicked  ;  secondly,  those  who  died  of  certain  dis- 
eases ;  thirdly,  the  heroes.  Of  the  wicked,  the  larger 
part  was  to  be  punished  everlastingly.  The  diseased  were 
to  have  a  kind  of  negative  existence.  The  heroes  were  to 
be  exalted  to  the  sun,  and  there  distributed  among  the 
clouds,  and  beautiful  flowers,  and  birds  of  paradise.  They 
had  also  a  baptism  for  their  children,  and  a  prayer  for  the 
new  birth, — the  doing  away  of  the  sin  which  it  had  before 
the  foundation  of  the  world  ;  also  some  good  moral  pre- 
cepts, though  mixed  with  others  of  a  silly  and  brutal  char- 
acter. Here  again  we  see  a  resemblance  between  them 
and  those  who  were  initiated  into  the  ancient  mysteries, 
who  were  baptized,  and  said  to  be  new-born  or  regenei'ated. 
Mr.  A.  G.  Mackey,  a  leading  member  of  the  Masonic 
society,  and  their  chief  writer,  says,  "Among  the  many 
evidences  of  a  former  state  of  civilization  among  the 
aborigines  of  this  country,  which  seems  to  prove  their 
origin  fiom  the  races  that  inhabit  the  Eastern  hemisphere, 
not  the  least  remarkable  is  the  existence  of  fraternities 
bound  by  mystic  ties,  and  claiming,  like  the  Freemasons, 
to  possess  an  esoteric  knowledge,  which  they  are  careful 
to  conceal  from  all  but  the  initiated."  The  members  of 
one  of  tliem  claim  that  their  institution  has  existed  from 
the  creation.  The  times  of  their  meeting  they  keep  se- 
cret, and  throw  much  mystery  around  their  proceedings. 
The  most  remarkable  of  these  was  in  the  Mexican  temple 


RELIGION   OF   MEXICO   AND   PERU.  337 

Yitzlipntzly,  which  was  accompanied  by  secret,  severe, 
and  soinetimes  cruel  rites.  In  one  of  them  the  god  was 
seated  in  a  square  ark,  and  had  a  rod  like  a  serpent  in  his 
hand.  It  is  thought  that  tlie  wandering  of  the  Israelites 
through  the  wilderness  is  set  forth. 

THE    PKRUVIANS    OF    SOUTH    AMERICA. 

For  the  history  of  this  deeply  interesting  country,  its 
origin,  its  boundaries,  its  political  character,  its  public 
roads,  its  suspension  bridges,  its  underground  passages, 
its  galleries  cut  through  rocks,  and  many  such  things 
which  almost  defy  belief,  and  which  even  modern  inven- 
tions scarcely  equal,  we  must  refer  our  readers  to  the 
various  histories  of  it,  such  as  Prescott's,  Rivero's,  and 
others'.  Its  religious  history  belongs  to  this  volume,  and 
that  can  only  be  presented  in  a  general  way.  The  striking 
resemblance  between  the  religion  and  priesthood  of  Peru 
and  the  religion  and  priesthood  of  Buddha,  in  Hindostan, 
China,  and  Japan,  strongly  inclines  those  who  have  ex- 
amined the  subject  most  carefully  to  believe  that  the 
Peruvians  were  colonists  from  some  part  of  Asia,  either 
by  voluntary  emigration  or  by  shipwreck. 

Let  us  briefly  examine  their  religious  system.  In  the 
work  of  Rivero  and  Tschudi,  as  edited  by  Dr.  Hawks  of 
New  York,  we  have  an  account  of  their  ancient  belief, 
before  the  worship  of  the  sun  was  set  up  by  Mango  Capac, 
whom  he  suspects  to  be  a  Buddhist  priest.  According  to 
the  best  and  most  ancient  account,  the  supreme  being  of 
Peru  was  called  Con,  and  had  no  human  form  or  material 
body,  but  was  an  invisible  and  omnipotent  being,  who 
inhabited  the  universe. 

By  his  word  alone  he  created  the  world  and  all  things 
in  it, — peopling  the  earth  with  men,  and  providing  for 
them  all  things  necessary  for  their  well-being  and  happi- 
22 


388  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

ness.  Thus,  overflowing  with  the  gifts  of  Providence,  the 
human  race  for  a  long  time  remained  happ}"^,  nntil  they 
gave  themselves  up  to  vice  and  crime,  and  neglected  the 
respect  due  to  Con.  Con  became  enraged,  sent  judgments 
upon  them,  and  converted  the  earth  into  a  barren  desert. 
At  length  Pachacamaek,  the  son  of  Con,  undertook  the 
government  of  the  world,  and  renewed  everything.  The 
new  generations  raised  a  sumptuous  temple  to  Pachaca- 
maek, on  the  banks  of  the  sea,  worshipping  him  with  the 
greatest  idolatry.  The  temple  of  Pachacamaek,  where 
Con  his  father  was  supposed  to  reside,  though  incoi-poreal 
and  invisible,  was  the  only  temple  in  Peru  raised  to  the 
supreme  being.  The  ruins  of  it  are  still  to  be  seen  at 
Lurin,  to  the  south  of  Lima.  It  is  probable  that,  even  at 
this  time,  they  worshipped  some  inferior  deities.  At 
length  arose  Mango  Capac,  the  great  reformei",  who  de- 
clared that  the  supreme  divinity  was  the  sun,  without 
whom  nothing  could  exist  in  the  world ;  that  both  Con 
and  Pachacamaek  were  the  offspring  of  the  sun,  as  he 
himself  was  ;  that  they  were  his  brothers  ;  that  the  omnip- 
otent father  had  permitted  him  to  incarnate  hin)self  and 
descend  to  the  earth,  in  order  to  teach  men  the  arts  and 
sciences,  and  to  instruct  tliem  concerning  the  will  of  the 
Supreme  being.  The  new  doctrine  was  received,  and 
rapidly  spread. 

Mango  Capac,  a  name  which  signifies  great,  or  power- 
ful, was  the  first  of  the  Incas,  or  divine  kings,  of  Peru — 
Inca  meaning  king,  or  lord.  All  other  Incas  were  the  de- 
scendants of  Mango  Capac,  the  sons  of  him  who  was  the 
son  of  the  sun,  and  thus  children  of  the  sun,  who  was  the 
supreme  divinity.  It  was  not  very  easy  to  establish  or 
perpetuate  this  system,  which  had  for  its  basis  the  aggran- 
dizement of  the  royal  family,  Not  only  was  a  free  pas- 
sage granted  to  every  nation  subject  to  the  Incas  to  the 
temple  of  Con  and  Pachacamaek,  but  on  one  side  of  the 


RELIGION   OF   MEXICO   AND   PERU.  339 

great  temple  at  Cusco  the  worship  of  Pachacamack  was 
allowed,  wliile  great  pains  was  taken  to  encourage  the 
worship  of  the  sun  on  the  other. 

In  regard  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Peruvians,  as  existing 
under  Mango  Capac,  they  believed  in  the  moon ;  called 
her  the  sister  wife  of  the  sun,  and  the  stars  her  heavenly 
train,  especially  the  planet  Yenus.  The  thunder  and 
lightning,  and  the  rainbow,  were  also  deities.  To  these, 
as  in  the  old  world,  were  added  all  the  different  objects 
in  nature, — as  winds,  rivers,  the  earth.  All  things  that 
were  moving,  and  had  life  and  the  power  of  production, 
were  objects  of  worship ;  in  fine,  that  most  universal  doc- 
trine of  pantheism  prevailed.  Their  system  was  kept  up 
by  the  united  authority  of  the  Incas  and  the  priesthood. 
The  priests  were  all  of  the  royal  family  ;  they  were  divided 
into  courses,  and  ever  served  at  the  temple.  The  great 
temple  was  that  of  Cusco.  That  to  the  sun  was  almost 
entirely  of  gold.  Tiiree  or  four  hundred  others  were  in 
the  city  and  round  about  it.  The  sacred  fire  was  ever 
burning,  and  was  kept,  as  at  Pome,  by  vestal  virgins,  the 
virgins  of  the  sun.  Thus  the  government  of  the  sun  was 
a  complete  theocracy.  The  religion  of  the  nations  which 
w^ere  conquered  by  the  Incas  was  tolerated  so  far  as  ta 
allow  their  deities  to  be  brought  to  Cusco,  and  placed 
among  the  inferior  deities.  But  then  the  worship  of  tho 
sun  must  be  introduced  into  all  the  conquered  territories. 
Temples  must  be  erected  to  the  sun  in  all  of  thein.  Wor- 
ship of  the  sun,  or  god  of  war,  must  be  chosen.  Two  hun- 
dred thousand  lamas  were  sacrificed  annually  to  the  sun 
in  Cusco  alone.  The  Inca  was  allowed  to  have  as  many 
wives  as  he  chose.  At  his  death  they  all  immolated  them- 
selves. One  thousand  have  been  known  to  have  thus  sac- 
rificed themselves  at  the  death  of  one  Inca.  As  sons  of 
the  supreme  diviniry,  the  Incas  alwaj's  received  ])rofound 
adoration.    Virachoca  was  the  name  of  one  of  the  brothers- 


340  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

of  Mango  Capac,  and  was  the  incarnate  deity,  who  often 
revisited  the  Incas,  and  prophesied  of  future  events.  He- 
roes were  also  worshipped  in  some  places,  under  the  name 
ofHuacos.  To  some  of  them  temples  were  raised.  House- 
hold gods  were  innumerable.  But  still  it  is  said  that  even 
the  Incas  would  sometimes  recur  to  the  ancient  Deity.  One 
of  them  said,  "Many  say  that  the  sun  lives,  and  that  he  is 
the  maker  of  all  things ;  consequentl}^,  that  which  makes 
everything  must  assist  that  which  is  made.  But  many  things 
are  made  during  the  absence  of  the  sun,  therefore  he  is  not 
the  maker  of  all  things.  And  that  he  does  not  live,  is 
proved,  because  his  trips  do  not  tire  him.  If  he  were  a 
living  thing,  he  would  grow  very  like  ourselves ;  or  if  he 
were  free,  he  would  visit  other  parts  of  the  heavens  where 
he  has  never  been.  He  is  like  the  tired  bullock,  which 
always  makes  the  same  circuit ;  like  the  arrow,  which 
goes  where  it  is  sent,  and  not  where  it  wishes." 

Another  said,  "  I  tell  thee  that  this  one  father,  the  sun, 
must  have  another  lord  or  master  more  powerful  than 
himself,  who  commands  him  each  day  to  make  his  circuit, 
which  he  does  without  stopping ;  whereas,  were  he  the 
supreme  lord,  he  would  sometimes  leave  off  travelling, 
and  rest  for  his  own  pleasure,  even  though  there  might  bei 
no  necessity  for  so  doing.'- 

As  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Peruvians,  they  believed  in  a 
future  state  ;  that  the  just  went  to  a  beautiful  and  pleasant 
place,  unknown  to  the  living,  while  the  souls  of  the  mali- 
■cious  were  tormented  in  a  doleful  place,  where  they 
were 'filled  with  sorrow  and  fright;  and  that  after  a  cer- 
tain time  they  would  return  to  their  bodies,  beginning  a 
new  life,  having  the  same  occupations  as  before.  This 
made  them  careful  to  preserve  the  coi'pses,  as  the  Egyp- 
tians did,  and  to  bury  some  of  their  clothes  and  utensils 
and  other  property  with  them.  The  great  god  Con  and 
his  son  Pachacamack  were  to  be  their  j  udges.     They  also 


RELIGION   OF   MEXICO  AND   PERU.  341 

believed  in  an  evil  spirit,  who  was  very  powerful,  and  had 
a  great  hatred  to  the  human  race.  The  name  of  their  god, 
Pachacamack,  was  a  great  antidote  to  the  enmity  of  this 
spirit. 

On  the  birth  of  a  child,  they  raised  him  in  their  arms, 
and  offered  him  to  this  deity,  imploring  his  protection  for 
the  new-born  infant. 

They,  like  the  Mexicans,  had  a  tradition  of  the  deluge ; 
and  that  seven  persons  were  saved  in  a  cave,  from  whence 
they  issued,  and  were  the  ancestors  of  a  new  race.  They 
had  also  a  tradition  of  an  ark  very  much  like  that  of  Moses. 
They  also  had  their  belief  of  a  future  destruction  of  the 
world.  Surely  nothing  more  is  necessary  to  identify  them 
and  their  religion  with  the  people  and  the  religion  of  Eu- 
rope, Asia,  and  Africa.'^ 

*  There  is  also  a  resemblance  between  some  of  the  Peruvian  rites  and  the 
Christian  sacraments  and  ceremonies.  Some,  to  account  for  this,  have  said 
that,  even  in  the  apostles'  day,  some  persons,  by  shipwreck  or  otherwise,  may 
have  found  their  way  to  America,  and  established  Christianity  among  those 
already  on  that  continent,  though  it  soon  became  corrupted  by  intercourse  with 
the  natives,  and  degenerated,  as  the  Jewish  and  Christian  religion  has  in  other 
ages  and  countries  of  the  old  world.  Certain  it  is,  that  baptism,  confirmation, 
holy  orders,  and  penance  were  all  found  among  the  Peruvians,  resembling  those 
customs  of  the  same  name  in  the  Christian  church ;  but,  as  there  are  similar 
rites  in  the  pagan  world,  these  may  have  had  a  pagan  rather  than  a  Christian 
origin. 


CHAPTER    XXIY. 

ON    THE     PAGAN    MYSTEKIE8. 

There  were  secret  celebrations,  more  or  less  frequently 
observed,  in  different  parts  of  the  three  great  continents 
of  the  old  world.  In  them  were  set  forth  the  leading  facts 
in  the  early  history  of  man,  as  handed  down  by  tradition  ; 
viz.,  his  fall,  the  deluge,  etc.  The  existence  of  God  and 
the  gods,  a  future  state,  the  necessity  of  a  renovation  of 
man's  nature  and  a  virtuous  life  in  order  to  a  happy  im- 
mortality, are  also  said  to  have  been  the  subjects  repre- 
sented in  their  mysteries.  There  were  the  greater  and 
the  lesser  mysteries ;  all  might  be  admitted  into  the  lat- 
ter, comparatively  few  into  the  former.  The  greater  mys- 
teries were  those  of  the  Cabiri,  the  Eleusinian,  the  Bachic, 
the  Samothracian,  and  the  Mithraic.  Some  others,  per- 
haps, put  in  a  claim  to  this  rank.  They  were  performed, 
with  many  religious  ceremonies,  in  dark  caves  and  grottos, 
or  the  lower  apartments  of  great  temples,  either  in  the 
night,  or,  if  in  the  day,  the  light  was  excluded  so  as  to 
require  lamps.  The  word  mystery  is  also  used  in  our 
Bible,  especially  with  reference  to  that  wonderful  dispen- 
sation which  was  comparatively  hidden  from  the  Jews, 
viz.,  Christ  manifest  in  the  flesh,  and  dying  for  men ;  of 
which  it  is  written,  "  Great  is  the  mystery  of  godliness." 
The  Christian  sacraments  are  also,  in  one  sense,  mysteries, 
though  performed  in  open  day,  and  fully  explained,  be- 
cause they  have  outward  and  visible  signs  of  inward  and 


THE   PAGAN   MYSTERIES.  343 

spiritual  tilings.  Moses  established  no  secret  societies  or 
mj'steries.  He  had  nothing  to  conceal.  The  sanctum 
sanctoi'uni  of  the  temple,  with  the  ark,  was  indeed  for- 
bidden to  all,  except  the  high-priest  once  a  year ;  but  then, 
its  design  and  all  about  it  were  known.  In  opposition  to 
all  the  mysteries  of  the  heathen, — those  mysteries  of  in- 
iquity, for  the  most  part, — God  said,  by  Isaiah,  to  tlie  Jews, 
"  I  have  not  spoken  in  secret,  in  a  dark  place  of  the  earth." 
Our  Saviour  delivered  all  his  doctrines  openly,  and  bade 
his  disciples  proclaim  them  upon  the  house-tops.  Bishop 
"Warburton,  one  of  the  greatest  admirers  of  the  pagan 
mysteries,  as  setting  fortli  the  unit}'  of  God  and  teaching 
morality,  until  they  degenerated,  nevertheless  admits  that 
"  not  one  of  all  that  numerous  rabble  of  revelations  (pre- 
tended b}'  the  heathen)  ever  professed  to  come  from  the 
First  Cause,  or  to  teach  the  worship  of  the  one  God  in  their 
public  ministrations,"  though  he  thinks  they  did  for  a  time 
in  the  greater  mysteries.  Ensebius  says,  "  For  the  Hebrew 
people  alone  was  reserved  the  honor  of  being  initiated 
into  the  knowledge  of  God,  the  creator  of  all  things,  and 
of  being  instructed  in  true  piety  to  him."  Nevertheless, 
we  may  derive  some  good  from  these  ancient  institutions 
of  the  lieathen,  which  were  doubtless  permitted  by  God 
for  the  preservation  of  some  truth,  when  it  was  fast  dis- 
appearing from  the  earth. 

We  have  seen,  in  preceding  chapters,  what  a  remark- 
able resemblance  there  was  between  the  gods  and  the 
early  traditions  of  the  heathen  world,  and  endeavored  to 
derive  an  argument  therefrom  on  behalf  of  what  was  and 
still  is  held  among  the  heathen,  in  common  with  the  scrip- 
tures. This  aro;ument  will  be  strengthened  if  we  find  the 
same  resemblance  between  the  facts  celebrated  and  the 
doctrines  taught  in  the  numerous  secret  societies  spread 
throughout  the  ancient  pagan  world.  Now  such  resem- 
blance and  even  identity  are  admitted  by  the  ablest  mythol- 


844  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

ogists,  just  as  all  must  admit  that  tlie  Jewish  and  Chris- 
tian ordinances  and  feasts  set  forth  the  same  great  facts 
and  doctrines,  when  celebrated  in  all  the  tribes  of  Judea 
and  in  all  the  nations  of  Christendom.  Mr.  Faber  and 
others  account  for  the  remarkable  similarity  between  the 
things  celebrated  in  the  mysteries  in  the  same  way  that 
they  do  for  the  similarity  of  the  traditions  of  the  ancient 
world,  as  to  the  facts  of  the  creation  and  the  deluge, — that 
is,  from  their  holding  them  alike  before  the  dispersion, 
and  after  the  confusion  of  tongues  carrying  them  into  all 
lands.  He  thinks  it  probable  that  Noah  and  his  sons  and 
their  childi'en  may  have  established  some  celebration  of 
their  deliverance  from  the  deluge,  when  as  yet  they  were 
all  one  family.  This  may  have  been  kept  up  and  enlarged 
until  the  meeting  at  Babel,  and  then  assumed  a  firm  char- 
acter, and  afterward  been  distributed  through  all  the 
dispersed  nations  or  tribes.  The  surprising  similarity  as 
to  the  deluge  and  the  ark  makes  this  theory  highly  prob- 
able.    This  will  appear  from  an  account  of  them. 

As  to  the  purposes  of  the  mysteries,  so  far  as  the  gods 
of  the  heathen  are  concerned,  all  agree  that  they  repre- 
sent them  as  having  once  been  mortals ;  that  they  were, 
at  their  death,  translated  to  the  heavens,  and  presided  as 
tutelary  deities  over  different  departments  of  nature,  and 
diflerent  countries  and  towns.  But  on  one  point  there  is 
diversity  of  opinion  among  the  learned.  Bishop  War- 
burton  and  Dr.  Cudworth  maintain  that,  besides  teaching 
the  earthly  origin  of  the  gods  and  goddesses  of  the 
lieathen,  they  lead  on  the  initiated  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  one  true  God,  the  creator  of  all  things.  Messrs.  Faber, 
Bryant,  Leland,  and  others  question  this,  and  say  they  do 
teach  a  certain  unity,  yet  not  that  unity  which  is  revealed 
in  the  scriptures,  but  rather  an  imperfect  thing,  the  result 
of  the  deification  of  the  first  father  of  the  universe,  as  re- 
aj^pearing  in  Noah,  according  to  many  of  the  old  mythol- 


THE   PAGAN   MYSTERIES.  315 

ogies,  and  afterward  the  unity  of  all  the  powers  in  nature. 
It  was  the  unity  of  Adam  and  Noah,  the  father  of  the 
races,  from  whom  so  many  millions  proceeded.  The  great 
Creator  was  lost  and  forgotten  in  these.  Jupiter,  the 
eldest  of  the  three  sons  of  Chronos,  the  great  Father, 
usurped  the  supreme  dominion,  and  became  the  great 
god  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  Certain  it  is  that  poets 
and  mythologists,  and  even  philosophers,  speak  of  him  in 
such  a  way  as  to  ascribe  a  certain  unity  and  supremacy 
to  him,  though  they  often  contradict  themselves, — Homer 
especially. 

There  was  also  a  philosophic  unity  among  the  ancients. 
The  whole  world  was  God — one  God;  and  all  things  in  it, 
men,  angels,  and  gods,  were  only  parts  emanating  from 
it,  and  at  certain  periods  returning  to  it.  This  was  the 
materialism  or  pantheism  of  the  Gentiles. 

"Jupiter  est  aer  —  Jupiter  est  coelum,"  etc.,  was  the 
language.  This  also  was  very  different  from  the  popular 
notion  of  the  immortal  gods,  in  whom  so  many  believed, 
and  who  were,  in  a  measure,  independent  of  each  other. 
The  mysteries  may  have  exposed  much  of  the  folly  of  the 
pagan  idolatry,  and  yet  not  have  taught  the  true  nature 
of  the  God  of  the  Bible,  which  even  Plato  and  Socrates 
so  imperfectly  understood;  modestly  and  humbly  acknowl- 
edging the  same,  only  feeling  after  God,  "if  haply  they 
might  find  him."  That  the  priests,  politicians,  and  phi- 
losophers encouraged  the  mysteries,  as  teaching  a  purer 
morality  and  a  higher  theology,  is  doubtless  true ;  and  yet 
they  may  fall  far  short  of  the  morality  and  divinity  of  the 
Bible.  St.  Clement,  one  of  the  fathers,  says,  "  That  the 
doctrines  delivered  in  the  great  mysteries  are  concerning 
the  universe,  and  here  ends  all  their  instruction." 

Cicero  tells  us,  that  in  the  orgies  of  Samothrace  and  Eleu- 
sis,  the  nature  of  things  as  well  as  of  deities  was  set  forth  ; 
that  is,  the  cosmogony,  or  creation  of  the  world,  as  well 


346  THE  BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

as  the  theogony,  or  origin  of  the  gods.  Caesar  tells  us 
that  the  Druids  discoursed  not  only  about  the  nature  and 
strength  of  the  immortal  gods,  bnt  taught  their  pupils 
"  many  things  about  the  stars,  and  the  universe,  and  the 
nature  of  things."  The  cosmogony  and  theogony  of  all 
nations  were  mixed  up  together ;  and  so  it  sliould  have 
been,  for  God  nuide  all  things  tliat  were  made,  though  he 
made  not  some  things  tliat  were  imputed  to  him,  and 
which  had  no  existence  but  in  tlie  imaginations  of  men. 
Sucli  were  the  no-gods  of  the  heathen  woi'ld, 

'No  doubt  the  origin  of  the  universe  was  tauglit,  but  how 
far  tlieir  teacliing  was  in  accordance  with  the  Mosaic  ac- 
count of  it  is  not  known.  Tiiat  it  was  something  different 
from  wliat  was  vulgarly  received,  we  have  no  doubt.  St. 
Augustine  says,  "  There  were  many  truths  which  it  was 
inconvenient  to  the  state  to  be  generally  known;  and 
many  tilings  which,  though  false,  it  was  expedient  the 
people  should  generally  believe;  therefore  the  Greeks  shut 
up  their  mysteries  in  the  silence  of  their  sacred  enclosures." 
Cicero  says,  to  one  of  the  initiated,  "Remember  what  3^ou 
have  been  taught  in  the  mysteries,  then  you  will  at  length 
understand  how  far  this  matter  may  be  carried  ;  "  that  is, 
"how  far  these  things  may  be  divulged  to  the  people." 

Herodotus  sometimes  speaks  very  freely  of  the  follies 
of  the  Grecians  in  their  stories  and  worship ;  and  on  one 
occasion  says,  "In  thus  speaking  of  them,  may  I  meet  with 
indulgence  from  gods  and  heroes,"  that  is,  the  greater  and 
the  lesser  gods.  Yet  in  another  place  he  sa^-s,  in  speaking 
of  their  great  god  Pan,  "  Why  they  represent  him  in  such 
a  way  I  had  rather  not  mention." 

In  his  history  of  Egypt  he  is  yet  more  careful.  Speak- 
ing of  the  blows  the  priests  inflicted  on  themselves  at  the 
great  festival  of  Bubastis,  he  says,  "  But  for  whom  they 
thus  beat  themselves,  it  were  impious  for  me  to  divulge." 
Again,  speaking  of  a  certain  tomb  at  Sais,  he  says,  "I  con- 

n 


THE   PAGAN   MYSTERIES.  347 

sidei*  it  impious  to  divulge  it  on  such  an  occasion,"  tliat  is, 
whose  tomb  it  was. 

Let  us  therefore  hope  that  the  unknown  God,  of  whom 
St.  Paul  speaks  as  being  worshipped  at  Athens  in  one  of 
the  temples  dedicated  to  him,  and  to  whom  in  Athens  and 
elsewhere  various  temples  were  erected  and  inscribed,  may 
have  been  the  one  who  is  so  mysteriously  spoken  of  in 
their  celebrations,  and  who  was,  as  he  says,  "  ignorantly 
worshipped."  But  we  must  also  remember  that  St.  Paul 
connects  superstition  with  it. 

But  whatever  may  be  the  fact  as  to  the  doctrine  taught 
in  the  greater  mysteries  concerning  the  unity  of  God, 
there  can  be  no  room  for  doubt  that  tiie  deluge  was  a  lead- 
ing circumstance  commemorated,  and  a  moral  change  the 
leading  doctrine  taught.  To  these  things  we  now  direct 
the  reader's  attention. 

In  the  Egyptian  mysteries  of  Osiris,  Plutarch  and  others 
speak  of  the  ark  as  a  leading  symbol  in  the  ceremonies. 
The  long-robed  priests  used  to  carry  it  about,  and  within 
it  was  a  small  golden  boat.  Eusebius  tells  us,  that  in  cele- 
brating the  mysteries  of  the  Cabiri,  who  were  sup])osed 
to  be  the  eight  persons  saved  from  the  deluge,  the  Phoeni- 
cians used  a  consecrated  ark.  Clemens  says  that  a  sim- 
ilar ark  was  used  by  the  Corybantes  Cabiri,  on  Mount 
Olympus.  In  the  mysteries  of  Bacchus  a  sacred  ark  was 
used  to  keep  the  symbols  in  the  celebration.  Several  an- 
cient writers  mention  a  golden  ark,  of  wonderful  anti- 
quity, in  the  temple  of  Belus,  in  Babylon.  These  are  only 
a  few  of  the  numerous  instances  of  the  use  of  the  ark  in 
the  mysteries  of  the  ancient  nations. 

The  restoration  of  one  supposed  to  be  ISToah  from  the 
ark  is  also  a  leading  feature  in  these  mysteries.  His  re- 
turn to  light,  after  having  been  shut  up  in  darkness  for  so 
long  a  pei'iod,  is  intended  to  show  the  translation  from 
darkness  and  ignorance  to  light  and  knowledge  on  the 


348  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

part  of  the  novitiate,  who  is  afterward  one  of  the  illumi- 
nated. There  was  a  small  door  resembling  that  of  the 
ark,  through  which  they  entered  the  cavern  or  hall  of  cele- 
bration, and  throngh  which  they  came  out  again.  In  some 
of  the  celebrations  an  egg  was  much  used — the  celebrated 
egg  of  the  Eastern  mythology — floating  in  a  vessel  of 
watei',  emblematic  of  Noah's  ark,  and  out  of  which  he  was 
hatched  or  born  into  a  new  world. 

Mr.  Byrant,  in  his  learned  work  on  the  pagan  mythology, 
says,  "  All  the  mysteries  of  the  pagan  world  seem  to  be 
memorials  of  the  deluge,  and  of  the  events  immediately 
succeeding.  They  consisted,  for  the  most  part,  of  a  melan- 
choly process,  and  were  celebrated  at  night  with  torches, 
in  commemoration  of  the  state  of  darkness  in  which  the 
patriarch  and  his  family  had  been  involved.  The  first 
thing  done  at  these  awful  meetings  was  to  administer  an 
oath  to  the  initiated.  The  ceremony  began  with  a  descrip- 
tion of  chaos,  or  the  deluge.  The  sad  necessity  by  which 
the  earth  was  reduced  to  the  chaotic  state  was  commemo- 
rated. They  then  celebrated  Chronos,  throngh  whom  the 
world,  after  a  term  of  darkness,  enjoyed  again  a  pure  and 
serene  sky." 

In  these  mysteries,  after  the  people  had  for  a, time 
bewailed  the  loss  of  a  particular  person,  he  was  supposed 
to  be  restored  to  life,  and  these  words  are  used  by  him : 
"I  have  escaped  a  sad  calamity ;  my  lot  is  greatly  mend- 
ed." On  that  occasion  an  invocation  is  made  to  a  door, 
which  is  supposed  to  be  presented  to  view.  "  Hail  to  the 
door — the  restorer  of  light,"  is  said,  or  sung.  The  person 
supposed  to  be  found  is  Osiris,  the  Egyptian  god,  and,  as 
is  believed,  none  other  than  Noah.  The  ark,  says  Mr. 
Bryant,  in  these  mysteries,  is  represented  in  the  shape  of 
a  crescent,  or  new  moon.  Hence  a  new  moon  is  a  type 
of  the  ark,  and  the  moon  is  regarded  by  the  Egyptians  as 
the  mother  of  all  beings.     After  Osiris  is  supposed  to  be 


THE  PAGAN   MYSTERIES.  349 

lost  for  some  time,  tliej  go  in  quest  of  him.  The  priests 
go  down  to  the  river,  carrying  the  vessel  in  M'hich  is  the 
golden  boat.  Into  this  they  pour  some  of  the  river-water, 
when  a  shout  of  joy  is  raised,  and  Osiris  is  supposed  to  be 
found.  He  agrees  with  Mr.  Faber  in  considering  the 
mysteries  of  the  Cabiri  as  instituted  in  honor  of  IN^oaii  and 
his  three  sons.  Noah  was  sometimes  called  Sadyk,  or 
the  just  man  ;  and  his  sons,  Dioscori  or  Cabiri.  Some- 
times they  were  called  Ileliadse,  or  offspring  of  the  sun; 
at  others,  offspring  of  the  ocean,  because  saved  out  of  the 
ocean;  He  (Sadyk)  was  called  Saturn,  because  he  was 
the  oldest  of  men,  and  father  of  mankind.  He  is  said  to 
have  had  three  sons  and  three  daughters,  and  to  have  once 
concealed  them  all  in  an  insular  cavern  in  the  midst  of 
the  sea. 

Noble  gifts  were  said  to  have  been  bequeathed  to  man- 
kind by  the  Cabiri,  who  were  considered  as  great  and 
beneficent  gods.  Tliey  were  the  same  who  among  the 
Jews  were  called  Baal,  or  Baalim,  and  who,  together  with 
the  luminaries  of  heaven,  were  called  the  host  of  heaven, 
and  were  sometimes  worshipped  by  them.  Perhaps  it 
was  one  of  the  arts  of  the  wicked  one  to  persuade  the  Jews 
they  were  only  honoring  their  great  ancestors,  Noah  and 
his  sons,  and  that  they  might  still  worship  with  them  the 
great  Jehovah. 

In  the  cities  of  Syria,  we  are  told  that  Sadyk,  or  Sat- 
urn, was  represented  with  four  eyes ;  two  looking  back 
to  the  old  world,  and  two  forward  to  the  new.  The 
double-faced  Janus  at  Rome  was  probablj''  Noah;  looking 
forward  and  backward  —  "the  child  of  the  old  world 
and  the  orphan  of  the  new,"  as  has  been  said  of  him. 

In  Saini)thi"ace,  the  mysteries  of  the  Cabiri  were  cele- 
brated with  peculiar  interest.  The  history  of  that  place 
was  intimately  connected  with  an  ark  and  deluge.  The 
Cabiri  were  said  to  be  the  burden  of  the  first  ship,  the 


350  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

celebrated  Argo  or  Arglia  of  mytliologists.  The  Cablric 
deities  -were  tlionglit  to  preside  over  navigation,  and  those 
who  were  initiated  into  these  mysteries  were  supposed  to 
be  secured  against  the  perils  of  tlie  sea. 

"  The  same,"  says  Mr.  Faber,  "  may  be  said  of  the  Tnys- 
teries  of  the  Druids.  Tliey  are  full  of  the  ark  and  the 
arkite  God.  The  watchwords  of  the  mysteries  all  ])oint  to 
the  loss  and  recovery  of  some  one  from  a  place  of  dark- 
ness called  Hades."  At  the  close  of  the  mysteries  the 
initiated  cry  out,  "We  have  found  him!  let  us  rejoice 
together."  After  a  certain  ceremony  with  the  image  of  a 
dead  man,  the  priests  chaunt  the  above  words. 

Let  us  hear  what  Bishop  Warburton,  the  great  cham- 
pion of  the  mysteries,  as  teaching  the  unity  of  God  and  a 
high  system  of  morals  and  religion,  says  in  relation  to 
them.  In  favor  of  their  teaching  the  divine  unity,  he 
quotes  the  following  passage  from  Plutarcli  :  "It  was  a 
most  ancient  opinion  delivered  down  from  the  legislators 
and  divines,  the  poets  and  philosophers — the  authors  of  it 
entirely  unknown,  but  the  belief  of  it  entirely  established, 
not  only  in  tradition  and  the  talk  of  the  vulgar,  but  in  the 
mysteries  and  sacred  offices  of  religion^  botli  among  Greeks 
and  barbarians,  sjn'ead  all  over  the  face  of  the  gh^be — 
that  the  universe  was  not  upheld  fortuitously,  without 
mind,  reason,  or  a  governor  to  preside  over  its  revolu- 
tions." Though  this  does  not  exactly  come  up  to  the  Mo- 
saic account,  yet  it  is  strong  testimony  in  behalf  of  the 
system.  The  bishop  also  quotes  Yirgil  as  giving  veiy  de- 
cisive testimony  in  his  behalf.  It  is  generally  admitted, 
notwithstanding  Gibbon's  ingenious  argument  to  the  con- 
trary, that  Virgil,  in  his  sixth  book  of  the  ^uead — a  book 
written  at  a  time  when  the  secrecy  of  the  mysteries  had 
ceased  to  be  held  so  sacred — gives  us  a  picture  of  the  in- 
itiation into  these  doctrines,  in  describing  the  descent  of 
ujEneas  into  Hades  in  search  of  his  father,  Anchises.    Bish- 


THE   PAGAN   MYSTERIES.  351 

op  Warbnrton,  as  well  as  others,  gives  a  fall  analysis  of 
this;  and  it  would  aid  the  youthful  student  of  Virgil,  to 
examine  some  of  these  sketches  before  making  the  de- 
scent. At  the  close  of  the  whole,  the  unity  of  God,  such 
as  it  is,  is  set  forth.  The  shade  of  Anchises  thus  discloses 
it  to  ^neas  : 

"  Principio,  coeluin,  et  terras,  camposque  liquentes, 
Lucentein  que  gloluun  kuiaj,  Titania  astra, 
Spiritus  intus  alit,  totamque  infusa  per  artus 
Mens  agitat  niolem  et  inagno  se  corpore  miscet 
Unde  horainum  pecudum  que  genus,"  etc. 

Although  we  have  something  in  the  above  which  resem- 
bles the  Mosaic  account,  yet  when  the  poet  speaks  of  the 
spirit,  or  deity,  mixing  himself  up  with  all  things,  we  can- 
not but  see  much  of  that  pantheism  which  identifies  the 
deity  with  all  things,  but  does  not  make  him  the  creator 
of  all  things. 

In  behalf  of  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  unity  being 
taught  in  the  mysteries,  Warburton  introduces  one  of  the 
Orphic  hymns,  sung  in  their  celebrations,  which  is  more 
to  the  point : 

"Look  at  the  divine  nature!  incessantly  contemplate 
it!  He  is  one,  and  of  himself  alone ;  and  to  that  one  all 
things  owe  their  being.  lie  operates  through  all,  was  never 
seen   by  mortal  eyes,  but  does  himself  see  all  things." 

As  to  their  inculcation  of  a  holier  life  than  was  recpiired 
either  by  philosophers  or  priests,  he  says,  "These  myste- 
ries were  only  for  a  select  number,  who  would  i)reparc 
themselves  for  it  by  holy  exercises,  fasting,  and  penance." 
It  was  taught  that  the  initiated  might  be  hai)pier  than 
others  in  a  future  state  ;  that  the  souls  of  the  profane 
stuck  fast  in  filth  and  mire  on  leaving  the  hod\-,  while 
those  of  the  initiated  soared  to  the  Iiabitations  of  gods. 
But  a  holy  life  was  also  necessary.      The  doctrine  of  the 


352  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

fall  of  man  was  certainly  set  forth.  The  object  of  the 
mysteries  was  to  restore  the  soul  to  its  primitive  state  by 
a  new  birth  or  regeneration,  wliich  was  set  forth  by  the 
birth  of  one  from  the  ark  into  a  new  world.  But  in  order 
to  the  initiation,  previons  holiness — consisting  in  prayer 
and  penances  and  trials  —  must  be  had.  This,  the 
bishop  acknowledges,  was  not  always  the  case;  for  after 
a  time  "all  men  ran  to  be  initiated," — that  "a  premium 
was  charged  for  initiation," — that  "  many  thought  it  as 
necessary  as  some  did  baptism,  and  even  put  it  off  until 
death,"  as  Constantine  did  baptism.  After  a  time  chil- 
dren were  initiated  ;  for  Terence  says,  in  his  day  it  was 
customary  to  initiate  children,  calling  it  "natalis  dies  ubi 
initiabant."  Warburton  admits  that  by  reason  of  their 
secrecy  they  became  most  corrupt,  one  and  all  of  them. 
The  Eleusinian  mysteries  were  the  last  that  retained  any- 
thing good  in  them  ;  and  he  acknowledges  that  much  of 
St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans  was  directed  against 
their  abominations.  All  of  the  mysteries  became  so 
abominable  that  they  were  the  subject  of  ridicule  on  the 
public  stage,  and  were  at  length  required  to  be  put  down 
by  public  authority. 

But  then,  he  says,  the  Christians  abused  their  vigils  and 
noctunuil  feasts  in  like  manner,  and  were  obliged  to  dis- 
continue them.  He  should  have  remembered,  however, 
that  this  last  was  of  necessity,  not  choice,  by  reason  of 
the  pei'secutions  of  the  heathen,  which  would  not  allow 
them  in  the  day-time,  for  these  purposes.  It  must  be  ad- 
mitted, notwithstanding  all  the  subsequent  abuses,  that 
for  a  long  time  the  wisest  and  best  of  the  ancients  ap- 
proved of  them,  as  having  a  good  object  in  view,  and 
producing  a  good  effect.  Socrates  commends  them  be- 
cause they  taught  the  initiated  to  entertain  the  "  most 
agreeable  exj)ectations  concerning  death  and  eternity." 
Plato  makes  Socrates  speak  of  the  author  of  them  as  well 


THE   TAG  AN  MYSTERIES.  853 

skilled  in  Iminan  nature;  and  jet  Socrates  was  never  in- 
itiated, for  reasons  that  none  of  the  moderns  can  make 
known,  and  none  of  the  ancients  have  revealed. 

Whoever  would  see  the  process  through  which  the 
oupopto,  or  aspirant,  must  go  in  order  to  be  initiated,  must 
consult  Faber,  AVarburton,  or  Bryant.  SufHce  it  to  say, 
that  whatever  could  be  done  by  alternate  darkness  and 
light,  sweet  sounds  and  discordant  ones,  lovely  and  dismal 
scenes,  hymns  and  songs,  gods  and  goddesses  passing  in 
I'eview  before  the  eyes — things,  as  one  said,  "  most  hor- 
rible and  most  ravishingly  pleasant" — were  adopted  in  or- 
der to  frighten  and  delight.  The  first  stage,  says  War- 
burton,  is  nothing  but  error  and  uncertainties.  The  latter 
part,  of  course,  is  delightful.  The  initiated  is  made  to  say, 
"  On  us  oidy  does  the  orb  of  day  shine  benignantly ;  we 
only  receive  pleasure  from  its  beams." 

In  reading  these  descriptions,  we  are  reminded  of  a  pas- 
sage in  one  of  the  apocryphal  books  sometimes  bound  up 
in  the  Bible.  In  Ecclesiasticus,  or  the  Wisdom  of  the  Son 
of  Sirach,  we  read,  "Wisdom  exalteth  her  children,  and 
layeth  hold  of  them  that  seek  her;  for  at  the  first  she  will 
walk  with  him  by  crooked  ways,  and  bring  fear  and  dread 
upon  him,  and  torment  him  with  her  discipline,  until  slie 
may  trust  his  soul  and  ivj  him  by  her  laws.  Then  will 
she  return  by  a  straight  way  unto  him,  and  comfort  him,, 
and  show  him  her  secrets." 

1  conclude  this  chapter  by  a  brief  and  friendly  reference- 
to  a  secret  society  still  existing  among  us,  of  very  ancient- 
date,  which  some  of  the  most  zealous  of  its  advocates  trace 
up  to  the  great  master-builder  Solomon,  some  to  a  still 
higher  date,  who  may  indeed  have  some  historical  connec- 
tion with  tlie  builders  of  Babel,  or  the  Cyclopean  archi- 
tects of  Europe,  or  the  Toltecs  of  America — I  allude  to  the 
society  of  Freemasons.  Mr.  Faber  says  it  is  probably  a- 
fragment  of  those  orgies  which  liave  prevailed  all  the^ 
23 


354  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

world  over,  and  have  come  to  ns  throngli  the  Knights 
Templar.  All  the  most  remarkable  buildings  of  Greece, 
Egypt,  and  Asia  Minor  have  been  ascribed  to  the  Cabi- 
rian  or  Cyclopean_architects,  and  the  present  Freemasons 
claim  it  as  their  privilege  to  preside  over  the  commence- 
ment of  great  buildings.  The  mysterious  concealments 
of  the  moderns,  vtdio  act  on  the  principle  of  one  of  the 
philosophers  of  old,  "that  people  despise  what  is  easy  and 
intelligible,  and  call  for  something  that  is  mysterious  and 
wonderful,"  seems  to  connect  them  with  the  ancient  mys- 
teries. Some  of  the  initiated  are  said  also  to  have  been  as 
much  frightened  and  overcome  by  the  terrific  scenes  which 
must  be  passed  through,  as  were  the  oepopto  ;  but  not  being 
one  of  the  favored  number  myself,  I  must  not  tread  on  for- 
bidden ground,  but  remember  the  words  of  the  old  Orphic 
poet — 

"To  these  a]one  I  speak,  whom  nameless  rites 
Have  rendered  meet  to  listen.     Close  the  doors 
And  carefully  exclude  each  wi'etch  profane, 
Lest  impious  curiosity  pollute 
Our  sacred  orgies." 

If  1  may  be  allowed  to  express  an  opinion,  neither  the 
good  nor  evil  of  these  associations  equals  the  praise  or  blame 
of  their  friends  or  foes.  They  were  established  with  good 
intent,  and  are  often  conducted  so  as  to  effect  good. 
Though  they,  like  their  ancient  prototypes,  liave  often 
been  abused  to  evil,  within  my  knowledge  to  intemper- 
ance in  some  localities,  I  believe  they  are  now  in  a  com- 
paratively pure  state.  I  am  happy  to  be  assured  that  the 
Bible,  both  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  is  not  only  the 
rule  and  square  by  which,  but  the  rock  upon  which,  they 
purpose  to  build.  So  long  as  they  adhere  to  this,  and  so  far 
as  they  thus  act,  they  must  do  good.  Let  their  charity  be 
the  love  which  exalts  the  Creator  and  the  created,  the 
Redeemer  and  the  redeemed,  and  all  must  wish  them  well. 


CHAPTEE    XXV-. 

ON   THE   PHILOSOPHERS    OF   GREECE   AND   ROME. 

An  eminent  writer  on  the  ancient  philosophy  well  re- 
marks, that  "Four  centuries  of  Greece  (a  little  speck  on 
the  globe,  containing  a  few  cities  on  either  side  of  a  narrow 
sea,  with  a  few  small  islands  between)  contained  the 
whole  universe  of  mind.''''^  This  memorable  period  begins 
with  the  philosopher  Thales,  who  died  about  448  years 
before  Clirist,  being  eighty-six  years  of  age.  Herodotus, 
the  earliest  historian  of  Greece  whose  work  survives, 
flourished  about  450  years  before  Christ.  His  work,  di- 
vided into  nine  books,  with  the  names  of  the  nine  muses, 
gives  us  some  account  of  the  primitive  state  of  Greece. 
Butler  calls  him  "  the  Homer  of  Greece  without  his 
poetry,"  but  his  prose  was  called  "  Musa  pedestris,"  or, 
in  modern  phrase,  "  Prose  run  mad."  Not  much  credit  is 
given  to  some  of  his  marvellous  narratives,  though  recent 
investigations  have  raised  his  character  as  an  historian. 
The  patriarchal  or  kingly  government  evidently  was  the 
first  form  in  Greece,  as,  of  necessity,  in  all  other  countries. 
The  father,  or  patriarch,  was  looked  up  to  by  his  children 
and  children's  children.     Before  the  establishment  of  a 


*  "  History  of  Ancient  Philosophy,"  by  William  Archer  Butler,  M.  A.,  Profea- 
sor  of  Moral  Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Dublin,  with  Notes  by  Professor 
Thompson,  of  Cambridge,  delivered  in  the  year  1842.  To  this  book,  to  the 
learned  Cudworth's  works,  and  to  Mr.  Leland's  book  on  the  "Advantages  of 
Revelation,"  the  author  is  chiefly  indebted  for  the  contents  of  this  chapter. 


856  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE    CLASSICS. 

regular  priesthood,  he  was  their  pi-iest  and  virtually  their 
king. 

"  Rex  Anius,  rex  hominum,  divum  que  sacerdos." 

After  a  time,  with  the  increase  of  numbers  and  the  en- 
largement of  territory,  the  kingly  government  gave  way 
to  the  democratic  throughout  Greece  generally.  "  De- 
mocracy," says  Butler,  "  made  Greece  never  tranquil,  but 
always  brilliant."  It  was  during  this  period  that  a  suc- 
cession of  men,  called  philosophers,  carried  the  efforts  and 
researches  of  the  human  mind  to  the  utmost  extent  of 
their  capacity  unaided  by  revelation.  It  was  a  modest 
name  which  tliey  assumed;  the  philosopher  meant  only  a 
lover  of  wisdom,  he  did  not  assume  the  title  of  magus,  or 
the  wise  man,  or  sage,  but  only  of  one  who  was  in  love 
with  wisdom,  and  sought  it  in  all  lands  and  in  all  ways 
by  which  it  could  be  obtained.  Originally  it  was  sophoi, 
or  wise  men, — afterward  philosophoi,  or  lovers  of  wis- 
dom. Pythagoras  was  the  first  who  took  that  modest 
title.  That  many  of  the  philosopliers  were  most  anxious 
to  find  out  the  truth,  as  to  religion  and  morals,  who  can 
question  that  reads  their  writings?  No  doubt  they  sought 
assistance  from  God  or  the  gods,  so  far  as  they  supposed 
assistance  from  above  could  be  given  as  to  the  attainment 
of  wisdom.  Phato  held  that  philosophic  "truth  was  reached 
by  a  course  of  protracted  previous  meditation,  and  of  anx- 
ious mental  conflict."  So  superior  were  their  views  of 
God  and  truth  to  those  of  mankind  in  general,  that  there 
has  ever  been  a  tendency  to  believe  in  a  kind  of  semi- 
inspiration  or  providential  guidance  of  their  faculties  not 
clearly  distinguishable  from  revelation.  Some  of  the  fa- 
thers seemed  disposed  to  trace  the  wisdom  of  Plato  to  a 
higher  source,  and  regard  him  as  the  apostle  of  the  Gen- 
tiles, to  prepare  the  way  for  Christ.  One  of  them  calls 
him  "  Moses  in  tlie  dialect  of  Attica  "  and  thinks  that  in 


ON  THE   PHILOSOPHERS.  357 

his  travels  and  his  intercourse  with  the  Hebrew  scriptures 
and  doctrines,  and  in  liis  great  reverence  for  the  highest 
antiquity  and  the  most  ancient  poets,  he  obtained  his  su- 
perior wisdom  and  deserved  that  name.  But  we  shall 
soon  see  how  far  his  wisdom  came  short  of  that  of  the 
least  in  the  kingdom  which  was  set  up  by  Christ  a  few- 
centuries  after. 

Let  us  take,  in  their  order,  some  of  the  leaders  in  that 
"  universe  of  mind,"  which  is  said  to  have  been  confined  to 
about  four  centuries,  beginning  with  Thales  and  ending 
with  the  disciples  of  Socrates,  and  whose  effect  has  been 
felt  in  the  civilized  world  ever  since  Plato. 

THALES. 

We  begin  with  Thales,  the  great  mathematician,  as- 
tronomer, and  theologian  of  his  day.  He  is  supposed  to 
have  died  in  his  ninety-sixth  year,  about  548  years 
before  the  Christian  era.  His  main  doctrine  was,  that 
water  (chaos,  perhaps)  was  the  basis  or  principle  of  all 
things,  but  that  God  was  the  mind  that  formed  all  things 
out  of  it.  Of  course  he  held  the  previous  and  eter- 
nal existence  of  matter, — that  is,  water  or  chaos.  He 
also  held  that  God  himself  was  unmade ;  also,  that  the 
world  itself  is  full  of  gods, — that  is,  good  angels,  who 
were  made  by  God  instead  of  being  mere  dead  matter. 
Now  this  was  a  great  advance  toward  truth,  or  rather  a 
large  step  backward  to  primitive  truth  and  revelation. 

PYTHAGORAS. 

Next  to  Thales  came  Pythagoras,  the  philosopher  of 
Samos,  who  travelled  for  forty  years  through  all  the  na- 
tions in  search  of  wisdom,  and  who  loved  to  hear  and 
see  so  much  more  than  to  talk.     He  died  about  496  years 


358  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

before  Christ,  and  fifty-two  after  Tliales.  His  doctrine 
was  divided  into  two  parts ;  exoteric  or  public,  and  eso- 
teric or  private.  He  was  afraid  to  proclaim  his  whole 
system  or  counsels.  According  to  Cicero,  he  believed 
that  God  was  the  soul  of  the  world ;  that  every  human 
soul  was  a  portion  of  God.  He  had  some  idea  of  a  trin- 
ity of  gods,  which  Plato  afterward  improved  upon  until 
it  became  more  like  the  trinity  of  scripture.  God,  he  said, 
was  the  active  principle  in  nature,  and  which  he  called 
monad.  The  passive  principle  in  nature  he  called  cluad, 
and  the  w^orld  which  was  formed  by  these  he  called  triad. 
While  he  believed  in  one  supreme  universal  IS^umen, 
whom  he  called  Zeus,  or  Jupiter,  and  who  was  the  oldest 
of  all  thino-s  because  unmade,  he  also  believed  in  manv 
inferior  deities,  among  whom  were  the  sun,  moon,  and 
stars,  heroes  and  demons ;  but  they  were  not  all  to  receive 
equal  honor.  Of  course  he  was  a  polytheist.  One  of  his 
followers  has  ascribed  to  him  the  following  view  of  Jupi- 
ter's supremacy,  and  the  instrumentality  of  good  demons  : 
"  Jupiter  alme,  malis  jubeas  vel  salvier  omnes  omnibus 
utanter,  vel  quonam  dsemone  monstra," — that  is,  Jupiter 
should  either  command  that  all  men  be  released  from  evil, 
or  show  by  some  demon  how  they  must  be  used.  Pythag- 
oras was  also  the  great  advocate  and  teacher  of  the  uni- 
versal doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  souls,  declaring 
that  he  himself  had  passed  through  many  such  changes. 
He  was  also  a  great  devotee  to  music,  and  said  that  the 
spheres,  or  heavenly  bodies,  in  their  motions  made  music, 
with  which  tlie  gods  were  delighted.  "  The  music  of  the 
spheres  "  is,  we  suppose,  an  expression  that  may  be  traced 
to  this  source. 

SOCKATES. 

Next  in  the  order  of  time  comes  the  wise  and  good  Soc- 
rates, who  sought  to  allure  the  minds  of  men  from  vain 


ON  THE   PHILOSOPHERS.  359 

speculations  about  the  universe,  and  motion,  and  the  gods, 
to  morals  and  practical  religion.  The  morals  of  the  Gre- 
cians were  very  corrupt  in  his  day.  His  great  disciple, 
Plato,  said,  "  that  God  alone  could  save  the  young  men 
of  his  day  from  ruin  ;"  and  again,  "any  soul  that  escapes 
the  common  wreck,  can  only  escape  by  the  favor  of 
Heaven."  The  examples  of  the  supposed  gods  greatly 
promoted  this.  Socrates,  therefore,  either  rejected  the 
gods  of  the  poets,  or  denied  that  they  were  guilty  of  the 
actions  and  vices  imputed  to  them.  He  was  not,  as  some 
have  said,  a  martyr  to  the  divine  unity,  but  was  con- 
demned for  rejecting  the  traditions  which  ascribed  such 
scandalous  accounts  to  the  gods.  Plato  makes  him  say, 
"  Can  you  in  good  earnest  think  that  there  are  wars  and 
contentions  among  the  gods,  and  that  those  other  things 
were  done  by  them  which  poets  and  painters  impute  to 
them  ? "  In  proof  that  he  complied  with  the  religion  of 
the  Greeks,  and  acknowledged  the  existence  of  the  gods, 
he  sacrificed  a  cock  to  Esculapius  just  before  his  death, 
and  offered  up  a  prayer  to  the  gods  for  a  happy  transla- 
tion. He  believed  in  one  God,  supreme  above  all  others  ; 
that  he  was  the  wise  artificer  by  whom  the  world  was 
made ;  that  he  was  a  lover  of  all  animals, — that  is,  all 
having  life  and  being  capable  of  pain  or  pleasure ;  that 
he  sees  and  knows  all  things ;  that  the  mind  of  man  is 
only  a  part  of  a  great  mind,  as  the  body  is  only  a  small 
part  of  the  great  mass  of  nature.  But  he  also  believed  in 
many  inferior  gods,  who  were  a  kind  of  body  corporate, 
members  one  of  another.  Socrates,  like  Plato  and  most 
of  the  philosophers,  identifies  the  gods.  "  E  pluribus 
unum,  et  Unum  e  pluribus,"  was  their  doctrine  and  lan- 
guage. Thus  Socrates  said,  shortly  before  his  death,  "  If 
the  gods  will  liave  it  so,"  and  yet  immediately  after  this 
he  said,  "  If  God  will  have  it  so."  God,  in  the  language 
of  the  heathen  philosophers,  is  sometimes  called    "  The 


360  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

One,"  "The  Good,"  "The  Supreme."  But  it  is  just  as 
"the  government"  is  used  to  signify  all  the  officers  of  the 
government,  viz.,  the  king  or  chief  ruler,  and  all  those 
connected  with  them.  Socrates,  however,  is  very  clear  in 
regarding  him  as  the  immaterial  Governor  of  all  things. 
In  his  "  Memorahilia,"  he  says,  "  As  the  soul  is  known  by 
its  operations,  so  God  is  known  by  his  works." 

PLATO. 

Plato  was  born  about  428  years  before  Christ.  His 
doctrines,  though  somewhat  corrupted,  have  been  better 
preserved  than  most  others,  from  having  been  commit- 
ted to  writing.  His  works  are  the  result  not  only  of 
deep  thinking  and  much  travelling,  but  of  the  reflections 
and  opinions  of  all  the  philosophers  which  had  gone  be- 
fore him.  He  was  called  the  Divine  Plato,  because  his 
views  were  so  ])ure  and  lofty.  He  was  also  called  the 
"  Homer  of  Philosophers,"  because  of  his  enthusiastic  and 
figurative  stjde.  As  to  his  views  of  the  deity,  he  believed 
in  one  architypal  animal  or  being,  viz.,  God.  AH  things 
were  formed  according  to  it,  and  by  it.  This  Being,  which 
he  calls  "  God  over  all " — "  the  fii'st  God  " — "  the  greatest 
God" — "  The  sovereign  mind  which  passes  through  all 
things  " — "  who  always  was,  and  was  never  made  " — 
"by  him  the  things  of  the  world  were  made,  where  they 
were  not  before."  "  The  world,"  he  says,  "  was  made  by 
God,  and  was  the  best  of  all  his  works,  and  he  the  best  of 
causes." 

But  while  he  held  that  there  was  only  one  self-existent, 
eternal  God,  who  made  the  world,  he  also  held  that  the 
world  he  made  was  God,  and  eternal,  proceeding  from 
the  eternal  God.  He  calls  the  world  "  an  intellectual  ani- 
mal ;"  says  that  "  the  heavenly  bodies  were  visible  and 
generated  gods."    The  earth  he  considered  the  oldest  and 


ON  THE   PHILOSOPHERS.  361 

best  of  all  the  gods  thus  generated — the  principal  one. 
But,  to  use  the  language  of  another,  "  While  none  can 
fail  to  read  on  Plato's  pages  the  main  lineaments  of  the 
divine  character,  single,  scriptural,  and  supreme,  yet  the 
same  page  is  filled  with  a  multitudinous  throng  of  gods 
and  demons.  The  inferior  deities  were  only  deputies  of 
the  supreme  framer  and  ruler  of  all."  He  calls  them 
"  subordinate  gods,  co-governors  and  co-reigners  with  the 
supreme  God,"  according  to  the  whole  tenor  of  the  pagan 
theology,  in  which  the  gods  are  identified  with  the  su- 
preme God,  and  co-workers  with  him. 

The  demons  he  called  "junior  gods,"  who  appeared 
and  disappeared  at  pleasure.  Cudworth,  his  great  ad- 
mirer, says,  "Plato  sometimes  speaks  jestingly  of  these 
generated  gods,  '  as  being  without  demonstration  or  even 
probability.'"  He  also 'speaks  in  one  place  as  though 
Plato's  recognition  of  these  gods  was  only  in  compliance 
with  public  opinion  ;  and,  perhaps,  to  avoid  the  same  fate 
wutli  Socrates.  This  opinion,  however,  cannot  be  sustain- 
ed ;  for  Socrates  nowhere  denied  the  existence  of  these 
gods,  but  that  they  were  not  guilty  of  the  vices  imputed 
to  them.  In  relation  to  the  supreme  God,  as  well  as  the 
inferior  ones,  even  the  greatest  of  them,  Plato  says  that 
there  is,  strictly  speaking,  no  incorporeal  god,  or  pure 
spirit?,  such  as  we  understand  by  spirit ;  that  he  must  have 
some  subtile,  etherial  body,  else  the  world  would  be  like 
a  vacuum  or  empty  space.  But  while  Plato  separated 
God  from  common  matter,  he  held  that  matter  existed 
from  all  eternity — proceeded  from  the  eternal  God.  God 
did  not  make  the  world  out  of  nothing,  as  the  scripture 
declares,  but  out  of  something  already  existing,  which 
he  fashioned  into  the  world.  He  denies  what  some  of  the 
ancients  held,  that  there  was  something  evil  in  matter 
itself. 

His  doctrine  was,  that  a  soul  endued  with  all  virtue, 


362  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

moves  the  world, — that  is,  God  ;  but  that  "  an  irrational 
soul  or  demon  got  into  matter,  and  moved  it  in  a  disor- 
derly manner ;"  that  "  the  generation  of  this  world  is 
mixed  and  made  up  of  a  certain  composition  of  mind  and 
necessit}^,  yet  so  as  that  mind  must  rule  over  necessity." 
He  maintains  that  evil  cannot  be  utterly  destroyed  in  this 
lower  world,  which  is  the  region  of  lapsed  souls.  "Where- 
fore," he  says,  "  we  ought  to  flee  from  hence  as  speedily 
as  possible  ;  and  our  flight  from  hence  is  this, — to  assim- 
ilate ourselves  unto  God  as  much  as  may  be ;  which  as- 
similation consists  in  being  holy  and  just,  with  wisdom." 
As  to  the  creation  of  man,  he  says,  "  God  made  man  and 
all  things,"  but  speaks  of  an  old  tradition  of  man's  being 
originally  of  both  sexes,  or  hermaphroditic ;  and  yet  there 
is  a  passage  in  his  writings  which  would  show  him  to  be 
in  much  doubt  on  the  subject. 

In  his  sixth  book  of  laws,  he  says,  "  Either  the  present 
generation  of  men  had  no  beginning  at  all,  and  will  have 
no  end,  or  else  there  has  been  an  inestimable  length  of 
time  since  its  beginning."  Cudworth  thinks  that  when 
he  wrote  this  he  must  have  been  in  his  dotage,  or  else  has 
written  through  fear  of  others. 


PLATO  S    DOCTRINE    OF   PEOVIDENCE. 

In  nothing  do  the  ancient  philosophers  and  mytholo- 
gists  difi'er  more  from  the  Bible,  than  in  their  views  of 
providence.  There  were  those  who,  though  atflrming  the 
existence  of  God,  and  that  he  made  the  world  and  all 
things  therein,  yet  held  that  he  only  established  certain 
laws  at  their  first  formation,  and  then  retired,  as  it  were, 
to  a  distance,  to  a  state  of  repose,  and  only  came  on  cer- 
tain great  occasions  to  superintend  and  correct.  "  Nee 
Deus  intersit,  nisi  dignus  vindice  nodus,"  was  the  motto 


ON   THE   PHILOSOPHERS.  363 

of  poets  and  philosophers.  Plato  wrote  against  all  such 
infidels  and  atheists  in  his  day. 

"Whoever,"  he  says,  "had  any  degree  of  seriousness  or 
sobriety  in  them  when  they  took  in  hand  any  enterprise, 
whether  great  or  small,  would  always  invoke  the  deity's 
assistance  and  direction."  Whether  by  the  deity  here 
spoken  of  he  meant  the  one  eternal  God,  or  the  com- 
pound of  all  the  deities,  is  not  stated.  He  held,  however, 
that  notwithstanding  this  providence  of  God,  some  things 
were  subject  to  fate  or  necessity. 

He  gives  us  the  following  passage  from  an  ancient 
poet :  ''  O  Jupiter,  king !  give  us  good  things  whether 
we  pray  or  pray  not  for  them,  but  withhold  evil  things 
from  us,  though  we  pray  for  them  ever  so  earnestly." 

Plato's  understanding  of  the  plastic  ok  creativb 
powek  of  nature. 

On  no  subject  does  he  speak  more  sensibly  and  satis 
factorily  than  on  this  mode  of  acting  by  the  divine  archi 
tect  of  all  things,  which  so  many  of  the  ancient  philoso 
phers   and  modern  infidels   substitute  for   God  himself. 
Plato  wrote  a  book  against  the  atheists  of  his  day,  saying, 
"  There  always  were  some  sick  of  this  disease  :"  they  de- 
nied that  there  was  a  God  who  was  the  working  principle, 
or  agent  in  all  things,  and  substituted  what  they  called 
the  plastic  power  or  principle,  "  which,  without  the  help 
of  God,  was  ever  working  things  "  to  certain  ends.     The 
philosophy  of  Des  Cartes,  during  the  last  century,  was  only 
the  revival  of  the  doctrine  of  atoms  revolving  themselves 
into  certain  forms  or  bodies,  and  was  substantially  this 
atheistic  system,  and  of  which,  it  is  to  be  feared,  there  is 
still  much  in  the  minds  of  some. 

Plato's  doctrine  was,  that  the  mind,  or  God,  together 
with  nature,  was  the  author  of  the  universe  ;  that  nature, 


364  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

according  to  reason  and  by  it, — that  is,  God, — ordains  all 
things.  He  speaks  of  the  deity  as  using  certain  causes, 
and  making  them  subservient  to  liimself.  That  which 
we  call  nature,  said  some  of  his  followers,  is  the  offspring 
of  a  higher  soul,  which  hath  a  more  powerful  life  in  it. 
This  was,  perhaps,  what  Ovid  meant  by  "  Deus  et  melior 
natura."  That,  then,  which  we  call  nature,  or  working  na- 
ture, is  something  which  obeys  the  deity  witliout  under- 
standing why  or  for  what  purpose  it  is  acting, — as  the  in- 
stincts of  animals  having  no  perception  or  enjoyment. 

AKISTOTLE. 

Aristotle, — called  the  Stagyrite,  from  Stagyra,  the  place 
of  his  birth, — was  a  disciple  of  Plato.  He  was  born 
about  384  years  before  Christ.  Plato  called  him  "  The 
mind  of  the  school,"  When  he  was  absent,  Plato  would 
say,  "  The  intellect  is  not  here."  He  was  a  pupil  of  Pla- 
to's for  twenty  years, — indeed,  until  Plato's  death. 

Aristotle  was  the  chosen  tutor  of  Alexander  the  Xrreat 
chosen  by  his  father  Philip,  wdio,  on  writing  to  the  phi- 
losopher, said,  "  I  am  thankful  to  the  gods  not  more  for 
his  birth,  than  that  he  was  born  in  the  same  age  with  you." 
He  formed  a  new  sect  in  opposition  to  the  Academy — 
the  school  of  Socrates  and  Plato.  A  grove  near  Athens 
was  his  place  of  instruction.  In  this  he  used  to  walk 
about  while  teaching  ;  hence  liis  disciples  were  called 
Peripatetics.  He  was  the  great  logician  of  his  age,  and 
his  works  on  this  subject  are  still  held  in  high  esteem. 
He  died  at  the  age  of  sixty-three.  As  to  his  theology,  he 
believed  in  one  God,  who  ordered  all  things,  and  called 
him  "  the  first  immovable  Mover."  Whereas  some  affirmed 
that  the  elements  were  the  first  and  oldest  of  all  things, 
he  said,  "  It  is  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  mind  is 
the  oldest  and  first,  and  has  a  most  princely  and  sovereign 


ON  THE   PHILOSOPHERg.  365 

dominion  over  all ;  that  God  was  tJie  mind  that  willed 
all  tilings,  and  that  everything  had  been  disposed  in  the 
wisest  and  best  manner."  As  to  the  lesser  gods,  which 
he  called  "  the  divinity,"  he  said,  "  The  divinity  was 
either  God,  or  the  work  of  God."  He  rejected  the  doc- 
trine of  self-made  or  self-existent  gods.  He  divided  the 
heavens  into  forty-seven  splieres,  over  which  the  gods 
presided.  He  agreed  with  Homer,  that  the  "government 
of  many  is  not  good  ;  therefore,  there  is  one  prince  or 
monarch  over  all."  He  says,  "It  has  been  delivered  to  ns 
from  ancient  times,  that  the  stars  also  were  deities,  be- 
sides that  one  great  God  who  presides  over  nature  and 
contains  the  whole  of  nature.  All  other  things,  he  declares, 
"  are  fabulous,  and  used  to  satisfy  the  multitude,  and  for 
the  utility  of  human  life,  and  to  teach  men  obedience  to 
civil  laws." 

Aristotle  also  speaks  of  some  ancient  writer,  who,  be" 
sides  the  material  cause  of  the  world,  assigned  an  efiicient 
cause  of  motion,  namely.  Love.  To  this  we  have  before 
alluded  as  being  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  amiable 
mythological  notions  and  traditions,  corresponding  witb 
St.  John's  declaration,  that  "  God  is  love." 

LEIJCIPPUS   Aiq^D   DEMOCKITUS. 

We  come  now  to  the  philosophers  who  sncceedcd  Soc- 
rates, Plato,  and  Aristotle,  and  in  whom  we  find  a  great 
falling  off.  An  atheism,  more  entire  and  dangerous  than 
that  which  Plato  assailed,  appeared  in  the  philosophers 
Leucippus  and  Democritus.  Of  the  country,  birth,  and 
death  of  the  former,  all  is  uncertainty.  He  was  the  in- 
structor of  Democritns,  the  laughing  philosopher.  The 
latter  lived  to  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  nine,  dying 
about  361  years  before  the  Christian  era.  He  was  born 
only  forty-two  years  after  Plato.      He  and  his  teacher 


366  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

survived  the  doctrine  of  atoms,  and  perverted  it  to  atheis- 
tic purposes.  He  believed  that  the  soul  died  with  the 
body,  and  that  there  was  no  such  being  as  God.  He 
laughed  at  the  follies  of  men  who  were  distracting  them- 
selves about  God  and  a  future  state.  He  believed  that 
the  basis  of  all  things  was  infinitessimal  particles  of  mat- 
ter, which,  by  a  fortuitous  concourse,  form  themselves 
into  all  the  bodies  of  the  universe.  In  a  few  words,  his 
system  taught  that  there  were  only  three  things  in  the 
world :  atoms,  vacuum,  and  the  combinations  of  atoms,  j 


EPICHRTJS   AND   HIS   FOLLOWERS, 

Epicurus  died  about  2Y0  years  before  Christ,  and  in  the 
seventy-second  year  of  his  age.  His  doctrines  have  been 
popular  in  all  ages  and  to  great  numbers,  because  so  grati- 
fying to  the  lovers  of  ease  and  pleasure.  Rome  was  cor- 
rupted by  his  tenets,  as  were  many  other  places,  from 
which,  after  some  years,  his  followers  were  banished  on 
account  of  their  pernicious  principles  and  examples.  The 
old  Roman,  Fabricius,  is  said  to  have  entreated  the  gods 
that  all  the  enemies  of  his  country  might  be  followers  of 
Epicurus,  thinking  he  could  wish  them  no  greater  evil. 

The  infidel  poet,  Lucretius,  completed  the  work  of  ruin 
— on  the  morals  of  Rome — by  translating  the  works  of 
Epicurus  into  his  fascinating  verse.  It  is  not  too  severe  a 
criticism  upon  his  principles  to  say,  "As  well  have  no 
god,  as  the  god  of  Epicurus,"  who  took  no  cognizance  of 
human  affairs,  leaving  men  to  their  own  choice  and  mode 
of  seeking  happiness.  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-mor- 
row we  die,"  is  the  sum  and  substance  of  his  teaching. 
A  great  intellect  in  our  own  country  has  said,  "  I  believe 
in  the  providence  of  God,  and  leave  to  Epicurus,  and  his 
more  unreasonable  followers  in  modern  times,  the  incon- 


ON  THE   PHILOSOPHERS.  867 

sistency  of  believing  that  God  made  a  world  which  he 
does  not  take  the  trouble  to  govern."  * 

ZENO   THE    STOIC. 

Zeno,  the  founder  of  the  Stoic  sect,  died  about  264 
years  before  Christ,  at  the  age  of  ninety-eight.  His  sect 
and  doctrines  were,  in  most  respects,  the  very  opposite  of 
those  of  Epicurus.  They  were  strict  in  their  mode  of  liv- 
ing, endeavoring  to  make  light  of  pain  and  trouble, — 
some  of  them  saying  "  that  pain  was  a  mere  idea." 

His  chief  followers  and  supporters  were  Cleanthus  and 
Chrysippus,  Tliey  were  materialists  ;  believing  also  that 
the  souls  of  men  were  actual  emanations  of  the  deity — 
parts  of  the  eternal  God.  Though  they  believed  in  one 
great  God,  they  said  the  world  was  full  of  gods,  who 
would  one  day  be  destroyed  by  fire.  They  compared  the 
doctrine  of  future  punishment  to  old  women's  stories,  used 
to  frighten  children.  It  seems,  from  the  manner  of  his 
death,  that  he  did  not  fear  then  himself.  "  Walking  out 
of  his  school  one  day,  he  fell  down  and  broke  one  of  his 
fingers,  at  which  he  was  so  afi'ected,"  says  one  of  the  an- 
cients, "  that  he  struck  the  earth,  exclaiming,  '  I  am 
coming.  Why  callest  thou  me? '  he  then  went  home  and 
strangled  himself." 

MAKCUS    TULLITTS   CICEKO. 

His  history  and  his  writings  are  so  familiar  to  those  for 
whose  benefit,  chiefly,  this  volume  is  written,  that  a  very 
brief  notice  of  him  will  suflice.  Yoluminous  as  were  his 
writings,  yet,  it  is  said,  not  more  than  a  tenth  part  have 
come  down  to  us.  He  rejected  the  doctrines  both  of 
Epicurus  and  Zeno,  and  attached  himself  to  the  academy 

*  Daniel  Webster, 


868  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

of  Athens,  that  is,  to  the  followers  of  Socrates  and  Plato. 
He  held  that  there  were  two  things  in  nature  to  be  in- 
quired of.  First,  the  matter  out  of  which  every  thing  was 
made  ;  and  secondly,  the  active  and  efficient  cause.  As  to 
the  first,  he  held  that  matter  was  self-existent  and  eternal ; 
as  to  the  second,  he  reasoned  as  did  Socrates  and  Plato, 
being  a  theist  of  their  school.  He  wrote  a  work  on  the 
"  To-en^''  or  "  summum  bonum,"  or  chief  good  of  man, 
showing  the  various  theories  among  men  on  the  subject, 
affirming  that  they  amounted  to  thousands,  and  conclud- 
ing, "  Nil  tarn  absurdum,  quod  non  dictum  sit  ab  aliquo 
philosophorum" — "  Nothing  so  absurd  which  has  not  been 
said  by  some  one  of  the  philosophers."  His  work,  "  De 
Officiis,"  has  been  called  "  The  Pagan  whole  duty  of  man." 
His  treatise  on  the  immortality  of  the  soul  is  considered 
his  master-piece ;  and  yet,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  it 
failed  to  satisfy  himself  on  that  subject.  The  very  title  of 
one  of  his  books,  "  De  Natura  Deorum,"  shows  that  he 
was  a  polytheist.  His  alternate  use  of  God,  and  the  gods, 
after  the  manner  of  Socrates,  Plato,  and  others,  shows 
that  he  regarded  the  divinity  as  a  kind  of  body  corporate. 
His  patriotism  and  oratory  were  of  the  highest  order.  To 
these  he  fell  a  victim.  His  severe  satire  on  woman,  "  that 
there  was  no  animal  so  revengeful,"  and  his  bold  denun- 
ciations of  Antony,  brought  down  upon  him  the  rage  of 
Pulvia,  the  wife  of  Antony,  who  had  his  tongue  drawn 
out  of  his  mouth,  while  her  husband  had  his  head  and 
right  hand  hung  up  in  the  Roman  forum,  which  had  so 
often  resounded  with  his  eloquence. 

SENECA. 

Seneca  was  the  brightest  ornament  of  the  Stoics.  It  is 
said  that  he  was  acquainted  with  St.  Paul,  and  that 
some  letters  passed  between  them.      St.  Jerome  and  St. 


ON  THE   PHILOSOPHERS.  369 

Augustine  quote  them  as  genuine.  They  were  extant  in 
the  time  of  Jerome,  who  speaks  most  favorably  of  them. 
He  was  probably  born  about  the  time  of  our  Lord,  and 
may  have  seen  St.  Paul  at  Rome,  where  he  lived  for  two 
years  as  a  prisoner.  Seneca  may  have  heard  of  St.  Paul 
from  Gallio,  who  was  Seneca's  own  brother, — having 
changed  his  name  on  being  adopted  into  another  family. 
His  morals  were  considered  of  the  highest  stamp  of  hea- 
then virtue  and  religion.  He  was  a  fatalist  of  the  most 
absolute  character  ;  saying  "  that  one  and  the  same  chain 
of  necessity  binds  both  man  and  God." 

His  treatise  on  Providence  contains  some  of  the  most 
excellent  things  against  the  cavils  and  murmurs  of  men 
on  account  of  the  evils  of  life  :  and  yet  ends  with  recom- 
mending suicide  to  the  unfortunate. 

EPICTETUS. 

He  lived  in  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  era,  and 
belonged  to  the  sect  of  the  Stoics.  He  wrote  much  and 
well  on  morals.  The  morals  of  Epictetus  perhaps  came 
next  to  those  of  Christ,  from  whom,  no  doubt,  they  were 
in  a  great  measure  derived. 

He  recommended  contentment,  on  the  ground  that  all 
things  were  ordained  by  Providence ;  but,  when  we  ex- 
amine what  his  providence  was,  we  find  it  little  else  than, 
stern  necessity,  or  fate.  And  yet,  so  superior  were  the  mor- 
als and  religion  of  Plato,  Tally,  and  Epictetus  to  those  of 
most  of  the  ancients,  that,  at  a  certain  period,  the  moral- 
izing clergy  of  England  and  Scotland  used  then  so  freely 
as  to  deserve  the  severe  criticism  of  Cowper : 

"IIow  oft,  wlien  Paul  has  served  us  with  a  text, 
lias  Plato,  TuUy,  Epictetus  preached." 
24 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

ON   PLUTARCH,  AND  THE    OTHER  PHILOSOPHERS. 

"Wishing  to  do  ample  justice  to  the  philosophers,  believ- 
ing that  God  made  use  of  them,  not  merely  to  show  the 
insufficiency  of  human  reason  to  find  out  the  knowledge 
of  himself,  but  also  to  remove  much  error  from  the  minds 
of  many,  and  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  reception  of  the 
truth,  as  seen  in  the  religion  of  Christ,  we  shall  dwell,  a 
little  longer  on  the  opinions  and  character  of  Plutarch 
than  we  have  done  on  those  of  any  other.  If  Plato  gave 
us  the  result  of  the  intellectual  efforts  of  all  who  went 
before  him,  as  well  as  of  his  own,  Plutarch  added  to  them 
not  only  those  of  Plato,  but  of  all  those  between  Plato 
and  himself,  and  at  a  time  when  unbelieving  philos- 
ophers could  not  shut  out  from  their  minds  all  of  the  rays 
of  light  coming  down  from  the  true  Sun  of  Righteousness. 
Plutarch  was  eminently  a  religious  philosopher,  accord- 
ing to  the  light  which  he  had  ;  and  a  pure  moralist,  ac- 
cording to  a  high  standard.  He  was  born  at  Chseronea, 
an  humble  city  Boeotia,  about  the  middle  of  the  first  cen- 
tury of  the  Christian  era.  He  endeavored  to  make  him- 
self usefal  in  that  place,  in  all  civil  and  religious  affairs. 
He  acted  as  one  of  the  priests  of  Apollo,  and  sought  to 
promote  piety  among  the  people  of  his  native  place. 

His  benevolence  displayed  itself  towards  all  objects  in 
nature  which  were  capable  of  pain  or  pleasure.  Con- 
demning Cato's  treatment  of  his  old  servants,  he  said,  "  I 


ON  PLUTARCH,  ETC.  371 

would  not  even  sell  an  old  ox  that  had  labored  for  me, 
much  less  cast  off  a  man  who  had  grown  old  in  mj  ser- 
vice." He  argues  in  favor  of  the  lower  animals  having 
souls,  and  even  reasoning  powers  ;  and  considers  eating 
their  flesh  as  cannibalism.  He  believed,  with  Pythagoras, 
in  the  transmigration  of  souls  ;  and  this  made  him  not 
only  kind  to  brutes,  but  even  to  abstain  from  all  animal 
food.  He  was,  in  one  sense,  most  catholic  in  his  religion. 
Though  renouncing  many  of  the  superstitions  of  his  day, 
he  yet  held  that  there  was  essential  truth  in  all  religions. 
As  sun,  moon,  earth,  and  sea,  he  says,  are  common  to 
all,  while  they  have  different  names  among  different 
nations,— so  he  thought  it  was  with  the  different  modes  of 
worship,  and  deities  of  different  nations.  He  believed 
in  one  supreme  and  self-existent  God ;  but  also,  with 
Socrates  and  others,  in  some  intermediate  deities,  who 
were  the  agents  of  divine  Providence. 

The  doctrines  of  Chance  and  Fate  he  abjured,  believing 
in  a  special  providence,  which  even  made  use  of  dreams 
and  oracles  to  effect  its  purpose.  He  was  a  meek  and 
humble  man.  In  his  writings,  says  Professor  Tyler,  for 
the  first  time  the  word  papienos  (which,  like  the  Latin 
hiwiilis,  in  its  usual  classical  sense,  imports  meanness  and 
pusilanimity)  occurs  in  a  good  sense,  to  denote  a  meek 
and  submissive  virtue.  Plutarch  held  that  God  formed 
the  body  out  of  preexistent  matter,  but  the  soul  was  a  part 
of  himself,  breathed  into  the  body, — not  made,  but  be- 
gotten by  him.  As  to  the  mode  of  subduing  our  appetites 
and  passions,  he  held  that  "  vows  and  ]3rayers  for  divine 
assistance,  and  sacred  days  of  fasting  and  abstinence,  were 
important  helps  to  a  complete  victory."  His  views  of 
true  bravery  were  fine.  He  tells  the  story  of  Zenophanes, 
who,  when  called  a  coward  because  he  refused  to  play  at 
dice,  replied,  "  Yes,  I  confess  myself  a  coward,  for  I  dare 
not  do  a  base  or  unworthy  action," 


372  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

His  philanthropy  and  largeness  of  soul  were  exhibited 
in  his  quotations  from  Socrates,  who  said,  ^'"We  are  all 
born,  not  Greeks,  not  Athenians,  but  citizens  of  the 
world,  with  no  narrower  boundaries  to  our  country  than 
the  sky,  and  under  the  same  supreme  ruler."  On  the 
subject  of  a  future  state,  he  held  that,  at  death,  pious 
souls  go  to  a  place  of  unending  day  and  unclouded  glory  ; 
while  the  wicked  sink  to  an  abode  of  perpetual  darkness 
and  oblivion,  where  they  are  punished,  not  as  poets  sing, 
"  by  vultures  gnawing  at  their  livers,  and  heavy  burdens 
of  fruitless  labor  oppressing  their  weary  bodies  ;  but  by 
ignorance  and  ignominy,  plunging  their  souls  into  a  bot- 
tomless abyss  of  inactivity  and  uselessness  and  obscu- 
rity." 

In  his  Moral ia  there  is  one  passage  on  the  universality 
and  superior  importance  of  religion,  and  the  belief  in  a 
providence,  in  opposition  to  the  licentious  doctrines  of  the 
Epicureans,  which  deserves,  for  its  spirit,  to  be  written  in 
letters  of  gold.  "  Travel  through  the  world,  and  you  will 
find  towns  and  cities  without  walls,  without  kings,  with- 
out theatres,  without  gymnasiums,  without  money,  and 
without  houses  ;  but  there  never  was  and  never  will  be  a 
city  without  temples  and  gods,  or  without  prayers,  oaths, 
prophecies,  and  sacrifices,  for  the  averting  of  calamities 
and  curses,  and  for  the  obtaining  of  blessings  and  ben- 
efits." 

Although  Plutarch  may  and  must,  to  us,  appear  super- 
stitious, yet  his  book  against  superstition  shows  him  to  be 
a  dry,  sceptical  philosopher,  by  comparison  with  the  un- 
happy fanatics  and  devotees  for  whose  benefit  he  wrote. 
His  views  of  fate,  and  fortune,  and  chance,  were  conserva- 
tive and  practical.  Plutarch  carefully  studied  the  religion 
of  Egypt,  in  its  hieroglyphics  and  symbols,  and  perhaps 
learned  as  much  of  it  as  any  other  man  ever  did.  He 
shows  clearly  the  identity  between  the  gods  of  Egyj^t  and 


ON   PLUTARCH,    ETC.  373 

Greece.  He  was  a  complete  convert  to  the  doctrine  of 
two  principles, — tlie  good  and  the  evil  in  the  world  ever 
warring  against  each  other,  the  good,  however,  being 
predominant.  In  the  consolatory  letter  to  his  wife  on  the 
loss  of  a  daughter,  he  has  some  fine  thoughts,  and  some 
strong  assurances  as  to  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  And 
yet,  as  Mr.  Tyler  well  remarks,  "  how  far  was  he  from  at- 
taining to  that  full  assurance  of  a  reunion,  and  a  reunion 
in  a  better  world,  which  Christianity  affords  the  sorrow- 
ing in  this  sinful  world !"  Plutarch,  like  all  the  philoso- 
phers, though  sometimes  seeming  to  admit  the  fallen  and 
corrupt  condition  of  men,  yet  wanted  the  deep  views  of 
his  sinful  state  such  as  Christianity  alone  presents.  As  to 
the  atonement  and  free  forgiveness  set  forth  in  the  scrip- 
tures, we  look  in  vain  for  them  in  his  writings. 

Transmigration  and  purgatorial  processes  are  the  means 
of  purification  and  future  advancement.  On  some  sub- 
jects, as,  for  instance,  future  punishment,  he  is  inconsistent 
and  contradictory.  At  times  he  speaks  of  darkness  and 
shame,  banishment  and  ignorance,  being  the  retribution 
to  the  wicked  ;  and  then,  again,  he  joins  with  the  poets  in 
supposing  the  most  horrible  tortures  which  God  could  de- 
vise. In  fine,  he  never  speaks,  as  God's  word  alone  can 
speak,  with  authority  and  with  certainty.  I  conclude 
with  the  admirable  words  of  Professor  Tyler,  in  the  last 
of  his  valuable  articles  on  the  life  and  writino-s  of  Plu- 
tarcli.  After  giving  him  credit  for  much  that  his  writings 
have  in  common  with  the  scriptural  account  of  natural 
and  revealed  religion,  he  says,  "  But  he  sheds  not  a  ray 
of  light  on  the  darkest,  dee23est  problem  in  theology 
which  has  ever  awakened  the  most  profound  solicitude  in 
thoughtful  and  serious  minds,  namely,  '  How  shall  man 
be  just  with  God  ? '  How  unspeakably  great  are  our  obli- 
gations to  the  authoritative  testimony  of  Him  who  came 
forth  from  the  unseen  world,  who  was  not  only  in  the  be- 


374  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

ginning  witli  God,  but  who  was  God,  and  therefore  had 
the  right  as  well  as  the  power  to  promulgate  the  precise 
and  only  terms  of  reconciliation  to  rebellious  man  ;  who 
became  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us,  full  of  grace  as  well 
as  truth,  and  thus  enabled  men  to  hear  and  see  and  handle 
the  Word  of  eternal  life !" 

Having  thus  endeavored  to  do  justice  to  the  ancient 
philosophers  by  considering  the  sentiments  of  the  most 
prominent,  among  them  from  the  time  of  Thales  to  Plu- 
tarch, a  period  of  seven  hundred  years,  and  these  the  most 
enlightened  of  all  the  ages  of  the  world's  history,  as 
known  to  us,  we  will  conclude  with  some  of  the  various 
and  contradictory  notions  which  floated,  a  chaotic  mass, 
through  the  world,  without  specifying  who  or  how  many 
entertained  them. 

The  great  discussion  among  them  was  as  to  the  origin 
of  all  things.  Many,  as  we  have  already  seen,  main- 
tained that  matter  as  well  as  mind  must  have  been  eter- 
nal.     They  said  "  Quicqidd  moveiui\  ah  alio  movetur.'''' 

Of  course  there  could  be  no  first  mover, — that  is,  no 
God, — since  there  must  have  been  some  other  mover  to 
move  or  make  him,  and  so  on,  backward,  eternally. 

Democritus  and  other  atheists,  therefore,  were  ever 
dwelling  on  the  axiom  that  God  could  not  make  anything 
out  of  nothing,  or  unmake  it  again.  It  is  very  true  that 
^^  De7ii/iiUo  nihil,  in  nihilum  7iil posse  reverti,''^  without  God  ; 
but  this  is  quite  easy  to  him  with  whom  all  things  are 
possible.  That  is  the  doctrine  of  Moses  and  the  scrip- 
tures, as  to  the  creation  by  God.  Some  of  the  philoso- 
phers, in  opposition  to  the  scriptures  and  Plato,  held  that 
there  was  no  morality  in  the  nature  of  God,  that  all  the 
distinctions  on  that  subject  were  indiff'erent  to  him ; 
whereas,  Moses  and  all  the  sacred  writers  insist  on  the  per- 
.  feet  purity  and  holiness  of  God,  and  his  abhorrence  of  the 
opposite.      Some  held  that  all  life  and  all  understanding, 


ON   PLUTARCH,    ETC.  375 

even  the  gods  themselves,  Jupiter  at  the  head,  came  out 
of  matter,  by  what  was  called  plastic  nature,  without  the 
help  of  God. 

There  were  many  who  held,  with  Leucippus  and  De- 
mocritus,  that  the  universe  was  full  of  small  atoms,  which, 
by  some  chance  revolutions,  came  into  the  forms  of  the 
various  bodies  which  are  to  be  seen.  Epicurus  and  De- 
mocritus  held  that  "  cogitation  or  thought  was  only  local 
motion." 

There  were  those  who  said  '•  that  every  thing  labored 
under  some  intestine  or  inward  necessity ;  that  even  God 
himself  was  the  slave  of  fate." 

Some  disbelieved  the  existence  of  anything  that  could 
not  be  seen  and  felt. 

Some,  as  Empedocles,  held  that  God  was  not  the  author 
or  maker  of  the  world,  but  only  "  a  holy  and  ineffable 
mind,  which,  by  swift  thought,  agitates  the  whole  world." 

Many,  perhaps  the  most  of  them,  held  that  the  whole 
world  was  God ;  others,  that  he  was  the  soul  of  the 
world. 

Some  held  that  matter  was  eternal,  yet  that  it  procesd- 
ed  from  God  as  an  emanation  ;  just  as  light,  though  coeval 
with  the  sun,  yet  proceeds  from  it  eternally. 

Some  blasphemous  and  silly  atheists  maintained  that 
there  was  no  life  or  understanding  above,  around,  or  any- 
where else  in  the  world,  but  in  ourselves ;  that  we  were 
the  highest  of  all  beings;  we  were  the  gods.  Others  de- 
nied that  God  could  have  made  all  things,  "  because  some 
were  so  badly  made." 

Some  of  the  materialists  lield  the  eternity  and  self-exist- 
ence of  matter,  saying,  that  "  if  God  had  made  it  out  of 
nothing,  it  would  have  been  perfect,  like  himself;  whereas, 
it  was  unmanageable."  An  ancient  poet,  however,  main- 
tains that  "  the  world  was  good,  for  that  God  made  it  as 
like  to  himself  as  possible."     He  was  not  far  from  Moses, 


376  THE   BIBLE   j\ND   THE   CLASSICS, 

who  tells  ns  that  when  God  had  made  all  things,  he  pro- 
nonnced  them  very  good,  man  being  made  after  the 
"  image  of  God." 

Proclns  saj's,  ''If  the  whole  world  be  a  happy  God,  then 
none  of  the  parts  are  godless,  or  without  God."  "  The 
heavenly  bodies,"  he  says,  "  having  particular  souls  and 
minds,  partake  of  the  one  soul  and  mind.  It  is  the  same, 
also,  with  the  elements." 

Some  one  says,  that  "  All  Hesiod's  gods  are  nothing  else 
than  animated  parts  of  nature,  fictitiously  personated  after 
the  manner  of  the  fanciful  Greeks." 

Proclus  says  "  that  all  tilings  were  eternal,  in  the  sense 
that  they  were  irradiated  or  proceeded  from  God.  That 
the  other  gods  or  parts  of  the  world  were  an  inefiable  pro- 
cession from  a  superior  first  cause."  They,  of  course,  are 
worthy  of  adoration,  and,  being  nearer  to  us,  are  more 
likely  to  be  worshipped,  as  the  saints  and  Virgin  Mary 
are  in  the  Romish  church. 

Such  was  the  polytheism  of  philosophers  and  poets  until 
the  time  of  Christ.  Even  after  the  coming  of  our  Lord, 
there  were  some  with  whom  the  fathers  had  to  contend  on 
the  same  points.  Thus  Celsus,  the  great  antagonist  of  the 
fathers  in  the  time  of  Adrian,  says,  "  These  silly  shepherds 
and  herdsmen,  following  Moses  their  leader,  and  being 
seduced  by  his  rustic  frauds,  came  to  entertain  this  belief, 
that  there  is  but  one  God."  At  a  later  period.  Porphyry, 
and  Julian  the  Apostate,  both  of  them  bitter  enemies  to 
Christianit}^,  becoming  ashamed  of  many  things  in  the 
poets  and  mythologists,  asserted  most  earnestl}^  the  belief 
of  one  self-existent  God,  maker  of  all  things.  But  Julian 
acknowledged  that  they  also  held  "  that  there  are  inferior 
gods,  to  whom  he  entrusted  the  government  of  different 
countries  and  cities,  as  prefects  or  presidents  appointed  by 
a  king.  Through  these  inferior  gods  man  approached  the 
Supreme." 


ON   PLUTAECH,   ETC.  377 

Some  of  th?  heathen  upbraided  the  Christians  with 
worshipping  one  who  was  himself  a  man,  and  who  died 
the  ignominious  death  of  the  cross ;  but  to  this  they  had 
the  ready  answer  in  the  acknowledged  fact  of  the  birth 
and  origin  and  infamous  character  of  so  many  of  their 
gods. 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

EFFECT   OF  THE    PHILOSOPHY  AND    IDOLATRY  OF   THE   HEATHEN 
ON   THE   MORALS    OF   THE   ANCIENTS. 

Although,  in  the  preceding  chapter,  we  have  shown 
some  of  the  deficiencies  of  ancient  philosophy,  and  the 
necessary  influence  of  the  same  upon  the  morals  of  man- 
kind, we  think  it  best  to  devote  a  chapter  to  the  more  spe- 
cial and  fnller  consideration  of  a  subject  of  such  impor- 
tance. St.  Paul,  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  epistle  to  the 
Romans,  has  given  us  a  most  loathsome  picture  of  the  de- 
pravity of  the  heathen.  They  were  vain  in  their  imagina- 
tions. Their  foolish  hearts  were  darkened.  Professing 
themselves  to  be  wise,  they  became  fools.  They  had 
changed  the  gloiy  of  the  incorruptible  God  into  an  image 
made  like  to  corruptible  man,  and  to  birds,  and  four-footed 
beasts,  and  creeping  things.  Wherefore  God  gave  them 
up  to  uncleanness  and  to  vile  affections.  And  as  they  did 
not  like  to  retain  God  in  their  knowledge,  but  changed  the 
truth  of  God  into  a  lie,  God  gave  them  up  to  a  reprobate 
mind,  and  to  do  those  things  which  are  not  convenient. 
He  tells  us  that  they  were  filled  with  all  unrighteousness, 
fornication,  wickedness,  covetousness,  maliciousness,  envy, 
murder,  deceit,  malignity,  whisperers,  backbiters,  haters 
of  God,  despiteful,  proud,  boasters,  inventors  of  evil  things, 
disobedient  to  parents,  without  understanding,  covenant- 
breakers,  without  natural  afifection,  implacable,  unmerci- 
ful.    Other  scriptures,  both  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 


MORALS   OF  THE   ANCIENTS.  379 

ments,  abound  in  the  same  descriptions,  not  only  of  tlie 
heathen,  but  of  the  chosen  people,  when  they  adopted 
principles  worthy  of  the  heathen,  as  they  too  often  did. 

The  apostle,  however,  has  evidently  a  strong  allusion  to 
the  philosophers  lalsely  so  called,  and  the  effects  of  their 
doctrines  on  mankind.  It  is  a  principle  clearly  laid  down 
by  God  and  by  the  wisest  of  men,  that  we  must  jnd<>-e  of 
teachers  and  their  doctrines  by  their  fruits.  We  may  thus, 
beforehand,  know  what  tVuits  are  to  be  expected  from  cer- 
tain doctrines.  One  has  truly  said,  "The  chai-acter  of  a 
people  may  be  well  known  from  the  character  of  their 
gods."  I  have  collected  together,  from  various  sources, 
some  testimonies  bearing  on  this  subject.  And  first,  as 
ignorance  of  God  and  truth  is  a  fruitful  fountain  of  vice,  I 
will  speak  of  this. 

St.  Paul  acknowledged  that  here,  even  with  the  light  of 
revelation,  "  we  see  through  a  glass  darkly,"  and  only 
"know  in  part."  What,  then,  the  darkness  of  a  Socrates, 
who  said  that  "  the  only  thing  he  knew  was  that  he  knew 
nothing ! "  what  that  of  Aristotle,  who  said  that  "  As 
the  eyes  of  bats  are  to  the  brightness  of  daylight,  so  also 
is  the  understanding  of  our  souls  even  toward  those  things 
which,  by  nature,  are  most  manifest  to  all!"  Cicero  said 
"that  the  liglit  of  nature  no  where  appeared."  All  had 
been  darkened  by  the  speculations  of  men.  "The  world 
by  wisdom  (says  St.  Paul)  knew  not  God."  "  Professing 
themselves  to  be  wise,  they  became  fools."  Truly  does 
Mr.  Locke  say,  that  "Philosophy,  in  the  time  of  Christ, 
seems  to  have  spent  its  strength  and  have  done  its  utmost." 
Even  four  hundred  years  before,  Plato  said,  "The  supreme 
God  was  hard  to  be  found,  and  when  found,  not  easy  and 
safe  to  be  declared."  "To  declare  him  to  the  vulgar  (said 
Cicero)  is  unlawful."  Even  as  to  the  Creator  of  tlie  world, 
Ovid,  who  lived  nearer  to  the  Christian  era,  and  seemed 
to  have  more  light  than  most  of  the  poets  and  philosophers, 


380  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

and  who,  in  one  place,  speaks  of  God  as  "Mundi  fabrica- 
tor et  opifex,"  yet  believed  in  nutnerons  gods,  and,  in  one 
place,  seems  nncertain  which  of  them  framed  the  world 
from  chaos  :  "Quisqnis  fuit  ille  deoriim"  is  his  language. 
The  most  ignorant  deist  of  our  day  would  despise  the  no- 
tions of  most  of  the  philosophers  as  to  God  and  the  gods, 
and  a  mere  child  might  instruct  them. 

Juvenal  might  well  say  of  mankind  in  his  day,  and  that 
the  day  of  Rome's  highest  glory,  "Et  genus  humanum 
damnat  caligofutura" — "The  human  race  is  cursed  by  the 
darkness  wliich  hangs  over  the  future." 

We  have  already  seen  how,  not  only  at  Athens  but 
in  many  other  countries  and  cities,  there  were  temples 
to  the  unknown  God,  where  the  people  ignorantly  wor- 
shipped. 

Let  us  now  see  the  opinions  of  the  philosophers  as  to 
that  great  practical  doctrine,  the  Providence  of  God. 
It  is  one  of  the  perfections  of  our  God  that  he  can  and 
does  attend  to  the  smallest  thing  equally  with  the  great- 
est, and  that  lie  can  and  does  attend  to  all,  small  and 
great,  at  one  time,  just  as  easily  and  perfectly  as  though 
all  his  care  were  bestow^ed  on  one  in  particular.  We  have  it 
from  the  highest  authority,  that  each  hair  of  our  heads  is 
numbered,  each  step  marked  and  directed,  and  that  not 
even  a  sparrow  falls  to  the  ground  without  the  knowledge 
of  our  God.  How  different  the  case  of  the  heathen,  with 
all  the  multiplicity  of  their  gods.  ISTot  only  did  Epicurus 
and  his  followers  hold  that  there  were  numerous  gods,  and 
one  superior  to  the  rest,  yet  they  took  no  concern  in  hu- 
man affairs ;  but  Plato  says  that  in  his  time  there  were 
many  who  professed  to  believe  in  the  gods,  but  yet  did 
not  believe  that  they  minded  human  affairs. 

Cicero  also  speaks  of  the  doctrine  of  Providence  as  a 
point  much  disputed  among  the  philosophers.  He  him- 
self believed  that  the  gods  took  care  of  great  cities,  and 


MORALS   OF  THE   ANCIENTS.  381 

great  men  and  things,  but  neglected  tlie  smaller  ones  : 
"  Magna  Dei  enrant,  parva  neglignnt."  Great  men,  lis 
thought,  were  inspired :  "  Nemo  vir  magniis,  nisi  aliquo 
afflatu  divino." 

Euripides  affirms  the  sentiment,  and  Plutarch  seems  to 
endorse  it,  that  "  God  only  concerns  himself  with  the 
greatest  things,  and  leaves  the  smaller  to  fortune."  Ju- 
venal, however,  comes  nearer  to  the  truth  :  "  l^ullum 
numen  abest,  si  sit  prudentia  ;  "  "  Sed  te  nos  facimus  for- 
tuna  deum  coelo  que  locamus ; "  though  it  may  be  he 
meant  to  substitute  man's  wisdom  for  all  the  gods. 

The  poet  Ennius  positively  denies  the  doctrine  of  Provi- 
dence, because  of  the  unequal  distribution  of  good  things 
between  the  virtuous  and  the  wicked.  He  says  of  the 
gods,  "Nam,  si  curent,  bene  bonis  sint,  male  malis." 
Pliny,  the  great  philosopher  of  nature,  represents  it  as 
"  ridiculous  to  suppose  that  the  deity  would  be  polluted 
with  such  a  sad  and  troublesome  ministry  as  that  of  at- 
tending to  the  petty  affairs  of  men."  Coecilius,  a  cele- 
brated Roman  lawyer,  makes  this  an  objection  to  the 
Christian  religion.  He  speaks  of  the  God  of  Christians 
"as  every  where  present,  troublesome,  impertinently 
busy,  and  curious,"  saying  that  "  he  cannot  attend  to 
every  particular  while  employed  about  the  whole,  nor 
take  care  of  the  whole  while  busied  about  particulars." 
With  such  views  of  God  and  his  providence,  it  is  not  won- 
derful that  their  views  of  a  future  state  should  be  very 
faint  and  doubtful. 


THE   IMMORTALITY    OF   THE    SOUL,    AND   A   FUTURE    STATE. 

Let  US  incpiire  into  their  opinions  on  these  points,  on 
which  so  much  of  their  religion  and  morality  must  de- 
pend. Socrates,  who  said  that  the  knowledge  of  tliere 
being  no  punishments  hereafter  would  be  "  good  news  to 


882  THE  BIBLE  AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

the  wicked,"  declared  that  "  in  his  day  there  were  few 
who  believed  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul " — though 
he  tried  to  produce  such  a  belief. 

Plato  wrote  very  forcibly  on  the  immortality  of  the 
Boul ;  but  both  he  and  Socrates  put  it  on  a  wrong  founda- 
tion, viz :  on  the  ground  of  a  previous  eternal  existence, 
as  if  God  could  not  create  it  and  perpetuate  its  existence 
without  a  previous  being.  But  after  Socrates  and  Plato 
passed  away,  many  of  the  philosophers  denied  the  future 
existence  of  the  soul,  and  the  multitude  were  ready 
enough  to  adopt  it.  Some  of  the  enemies  of  Christianity 
denied  that  the  pagans  did  disbelieve  it.  Celsus,  the 
greatest  among  them,  wishing  to  put  the  pagan  systems 
on  a  level  with  the  gospel  in  this  respect,  thus  argued ; 
but  Origen  is  very  strong  in  opposition  to  his  assertion. 
But  even  when  the  doctrine  of  a  future  state  was  ad- 
mitted, how  many  of  them  stripped  it  of  all  terror  to  the 
wicked,  and  represented  God  as  incapable  of  anger,  even 
toward  sin,  and  that  there  was  no  suftering,  although  there 
might  be  some  shame  and  ignorance.  Plutarch  says  that 
the  most  of  mankind  were  ready  to  admit  what  he  calls  "  the 
fabulous  hope  of  immortality,  but  had  no  fear  of  the  pun- 
ishments of  Hades,"  which  he  calls  "  the  tales  of  mothers 
and  nurses."  At  other  times,  however,  he  speaks  differ- 
ently, and  perhaps  is  misunderstood  here. 

Cicero,  also,  in  his  Tusculan  disputations,  says  of  the  ac- 
counts of  future  punishments  which  had  prevailed,  that 
"  scarce  any  person  at  Rome  believed  them."  "  What 
old  woman,"  he  asks,  "  can  be  so  senseless  as  to  be  afraid 
of  the  monstrous  things  in  the  infernal  regions,  which 
were  anciently  believed  ?  " 

Juvenal  also  says,  "  Nee  pueri  credunt  nisi  qui  gere 
lavantur."  Could  we  only  find  that  they  had  any  fear  of 
any  kind  of  future  punishment,  we  could  readily  excuse 
their  unbelief  of  much  that  was  taught  in  the  fables,  but 


MORALS   OF  THE  ANCIENTS.  383 

fear  that  there  was  little  apprehension  of  future  punish- 
ment, of  any  kind  or  degree. 

Equally  doubtful  and  gloomy  were  their  views  as  to 
the  condition  and  rewards  of  the  good.  Plato  complains 
of  Homer  for  giving  such  dismal  accounts  of  the  dead, 
saying  that  "  they  weakened  men's  courage,  and  made 
them  afraid  to  die."  When  Achilles  meets  Ulysses  in 
Hades,  (the  heaven  of  the  pagans,)  he  tells  him  that  he 
had  rather  be  a  rustic  on  earth,  serving  a  poor  man  for 
hire,  than  to  have  a  large  empire  over  all  the  dead, — thus 
more  than  reversing  the  choice  of  Milton's  hero,  "  Better 
to  reign  in  hell,  than  serve  in  heaven."  Homer,  how- 
ever, notwithstanding  this,  speaks  of  Hades  as  "  a  delec- 
table place." 

As  to  the  later  poets,  though  they  say  some  things  fa- 
vorable to  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
they  have  other  things  and  more  against  it.  Thus  Ca- 
tullus, 

"  Nobis  cum  semel  occidit  brevis  lux 
Nox  est  pcrpetua  una  dormienda." 

So  also  Horace, 

"  Vitae  summa  brevis  spem  nos  vetat  inchoare  longam 
Jam  nox  te  premit,  fabulte  que  manes." 

Persius  also  tells  us  that  the  language  of  his  day  was, 

"Indulge  genio:  carpamus  dulcia,  nostrum  est 
Quod  vivis:  cinis  et  manes  etfabula  ties." 

Seneca  also,  in  his  tragedian,  says, 

"  Post  mortem  nihil  est,  ipsa  que  mors  nihil, 
Quasris  quo  jaceas,  post  obitum,  loco ; 
Quo  non  nati  jacent." 

Julius  Ca3sai',  as  we  have  seen  elsewhere  in  his  speech 
for  Catiline,  pleads  lor  his  life  by  saying  that  death  was 


884  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

no  punishment  to  Iiim  ;  that  death  puts  an  end  to  all  those 
evils  men  are  subject  to;  that  beyond  it  there  is  no  place 
left  for  anguish  or  joy  ;  that  neither  the  soul  nor  body  had 
any  more  sense  after  death.  But  let  us  once  more  hear 
what  Cicero  himself  says — -that  Cicero  who  wrote  the 
masterly  and  unanswerable  argument  in  favor  of  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul,  and  yet  was  not  quite  satisfied  him- 
self. "A  question,"  he  says,  "has  been  raised,  whether 
the  soul  dies  with  the  body,  or  whether,  if  surviving,  it 
should  have  a  perpetual  existence  or  only  a  temporary 
one."  "As  to  the  question,"  he  says,  "which  of  these 
opinions  be  true,  some  god  must  determine."  Which  is 
most  probable,  is  a  great  question.  Cicero  was  a  follower 
of  Plato,  who  also  wi-ote  on  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
and  who,  it  must  be  ever  borne  in  mind,  was  the  great 
advocate  of  the  doctrine  of  "probabilities,"  viz.,  that  the 
most  fixed  opinions  were  at  best  but  probabilities.  And 
this  he  got  from  his  old  master  Socrates,  the  great  de- 
fender of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  against  the  infidels 
of  his  day.  He  was  the  practical  philosopher  of  Greece 
and  the  world.  And  how  did  he  meet  death,  for  defend- 
ing truth  and  condemning  error  too  boldly!  The  doctrine 
of  probability  was  his  best  hope.  "  I  am  in  good  liope^'^ 
he  said,  "that  there  is  something  remaining  for  those  that 
are  dead,  and  that,  as  hath  been  said  of  old,  it  is  much 
better  for  good  than  for  bad  men."  Ilis  disciple,  Plato, 
rested  it  on  the  same  foundation,  viz.,  "  that  we  ought  al- 
ways to  believe  the  ancient  and  sacred  words," — that  is, 
"old  tradition."  Let  us  hear  the  last  words  of  Socrates 
to  his  friends  :  "  It  is  now  time  to  depart.  I  am  going  to 
die.  You  shall  continue  here ;  but  which  of  us  shall  be 
in  better  state  is  unknown  to  all  but  God."  How  different 
the  language  of  St.  Paul :  "  The  time  of  my  departure  is 
at  hand.  I  have  fought  a  good  fight ;  I  have  finished 
my  course  ;   I  have  kept  the  faith  :    henceforth  there  is 


MORALS   OF  THE   ANCIENTS.  885 

laid  lip  for  me  a  crown  of  righteousness,  wliicli  tlie  Lord, 
the  righteous  judge,  shall  give  me  on  that  day."  But 
even  this  leap  in  the  dark,  this  plunge  into  a  world  un- 
known, which  Socrates  made,  how  much  better  than  the 
creed  of  another  philosopher  who,  in  the  close  of  life,  and 
in  view  of  death,  left  this  testimony  to  his  followers : 
"  Foede  hunc  mundum  intravi ;  anxius  vixi,  incertus  mo- 
rior  ;  O  causa  causarum  miserere  mei !  " — "  Unclean  I  en- 
tered this  world  ;  anxious  have  I  lived,  uncertain  I  die  ; 
O  Cause  of  causes,  pity  me !  "  I  heard  an  old  infidel  of 
ninety  years  of  age  utter  these  words  as  his  creed,  "  O 
my  soul,  come  not  thou  into  his  secret." 

And  how  man}",  under  the  influence  of  such  a  painful 
uncertainty,  have  rushed  uncalled  into  eternity,  to  realize 
their  future  condition !  How  many  of  the  i^hilosophers 
have  justified  the  experiment! 

Epictetus,  one  of  the  best  of  heathen  moralists,  says,  as 
to  the  troubles  of  life,  "  Jupiter  hath  made  these  things 
to  be  no  evils.  He  has  opened  a  door  whenever  they  do 
not  suit  you.  Go  out,  and  do  not  complain.  If  these 
evils  be  not  great,  stay  where  thou  art.  But  the  door  is 
open.  Do  not  be  more  fearful  than  children.  When  the 
play  does  not  please  them,  they  say,  we  will  play  no  lon- 
ger. So  do  you  say,  in  that  case,  I  will  play  no  longer. 
If  my  house  be  smoking,  I  will  go  out  of  it." 

Thus  also  did  David  Hume  reason:  "Whenever,"  he 
said,  "  pain  or  sorrow  so  far  overcomes  my  patience  as 
to  make  me  tire  of  life,  I  may  conclude  that  I  am  re- 
called from  my  state  in  the  plainest  and  most  express 
terms.  When  I  fall  upon  my  own  sword,  I  receive  my 
death  equally  from  the  hands  of  the  Deity  as  if  it  had 
proceeded  from  a  lion,  a  precipice,  or  a  fever.  Where  is 
the  crime  of  turning  a  few  ounces  of  blood  out  of  the 
natural  channel  ? " 
25 


886  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 


THE   KESUEEECTION   OF   THE    BODY. 

This  great  incentive  to  virtue  and  preventive  of  vice, — 
the  liope  of  happiness  and  fear  of  suffering  in  the  body  as 
well  as  soul, — was  almost  entirely  wanting  to  the  pagan 
system.  St.  Paul  was  reckoned  a  madman  for  teaching 
so  incredible  a  thing.  His  great  argument  in  defence  of 
it  was,  "why  should  it  be  thought  a  thing  impossible 
with  you  that  God  should  raise  the  dead  ? "  Pythagoras 
and  Plato  could  not  have  received  it,  because,  according 
to  their  system,  the  soul  preexisted,  and  tlie  body  was  the 
mere  temporary  prison.  The  soul  was  to  find  some  other 
abode  at  death,  or  be  reabsorbed  into  God.  The  infidel 
Celsus  treated  it  with  contempt,  calling  it  "  the  hope  of 
worms."  Among  the  Jews,  the  scribes  and  Pharisees 
held  it ;  but  the  Sadducees, — the  infidels  of  Judea, — re- 
jected it.  See  our  chapter  on  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
and  resurrection  of  the  body. 

THE    EVIL   CHARACTER    OF   THE    GODS. 

We  have  reserved  for  the  last  that  which  contributed  so 
much  to  demoralize  the  heathen,  viz.,  the  character  of 
their  deities. 

Jupiter,  though  sometimes  regarded  as  the  great  self- 
existent  god  or  Numen  of  the  universe,  was  much  oftener 
worshipped  as  an  ancient  king  who  was  guilty  of  nunier- 
ous  and  great  crimes.  Thus  does  Homer  represent  him. 
His  example  was  pleaded  as  a  sanction  for  the  n)ost  in- 
famous vices.  So  scandalous  were  his  repeated  acts,  that 
the  primitive  Christians  could  never  be  induced,  though 
under  penalty  of  death,  to  pronounce  his  name  as  that  of 
the  great  God,  without  prefixing  the  name  of  Creator  or 
Maker  to  distinguish  him  as  the  God  of  the  Christian  from 
the  god  of  the  pagan. 


MORALS   OF   THE   ANCIENTS.  387 

The  animals  also,  whose  images  were  used  in  Egypt, 
and  doubtless  elsewhere,  were  symbolical  of  the  qualities 
of  the  gods  w'hich  they  represented.  Of  course,  Avhatever 
evil  or  peculiar  qualities  distinguished  the  animal,  were 
ascribed  to  the  gods  themselves. 

The  parts  or  objects  of  nature,  when  worshipped,  as  thej 
often  were,  were  confounded  with  the  hero-gods.  Thus 
Bacchus  was  wine,  Yulcan  was  fire,  Ceres  was  corn. 
Temples  were  erected,  not  only  to  good  qualities  but  also 
to  vicious  ones, — as  to  Yolupis,  the  goddess  of  pleasure  ; 
to  Libertina,  the  goddess  of  lust.  In  Athens  there  was 
one  to  impudence  and  contumely.  Plutarch  informs  us 
that  the  people  not  only  worshipped  those  who  were  fa- 
vorable to  mankind,  but  those  most  unfavorable,  as  the 
Dirse,  the  Furies,  and  Mars,  seeking  to  appease  them  by 
the  most  cruel  I'ites  and  sacrifices,  thus  fulfilling  the  ac- 
count which  Milton  gives  us  in  one  brief  half  sentence, — 
'•''Lust  Imrd  hy  liate^  Plutarch  also  speaks  of  some  in 
Egypt  who  used,  on  certain  days,  to  inflict  the  most  cruel 
torture  on  themselves  in  order  to  appease  some  malignant 
demons,  and  avert  their  wrath.  These  were  they,  and 
there  were  thousands  of  others,  as  has  been  already  said, 

"  Wlio  sought  to  merit  heaven 
By  making  eartli  a  hell." 

As  to  tlie  obscenity  of  the  ancient  worship  and  the  de- 
scription of  it,  they  were  such  that  Plato  did  well  to  ban- 
ish the  licentious  poets  from  his  commonwealth,  although 
lie  held  that  in  the  most  ancient  poets  was  most  of  primi- 
tive truth.  He  condemned  Hesiod  and  others  for  the- 
scandalous  things  said  by  them  of  Jupiter.  It  is  well 
known,  also,  that  in  some  of  the  public  games  and  plays 
the  flagitious  actions  of  the  gods  were  publicly  represented 
as  a  pious  offering  to  them.  At  Rome,  after  the  theatres 
had  been  closed  as  corrupters  of  the  morals  of  the  people,. 


388  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

they  were  opened  again  in  the  time  of  a  plague  to  pro- 
pitiate the  mah'gnant  deities  who  sent  it, 

St.  Austin  says,  that  "  There  are  some  things  in  the  sa- 
cred books  of  the  pagans  which  treat  of  religion  and  the 
holy  rites,  which  grave  poets  would  have  thought  unfit  to  be 
the  subjects  of  their  verses."  Varro,  the  Roman  historian, 
says,  "  They  call  those  gods  which,  if  they  had  life  and 
breath,  and  a  man  should  meet  them  unexpectedly,  would 
pass  for  monsters." 

"  The  same  gods,"  says  St.  Austin,  "  are  laughed  at  in 
the  theatres,  and  adored  in  the  temples."  Ovid,  in  his 
sad  letters  from  Pontus,  complains  that  lie  was  banished 
from  Home  for  some  things  in  his  "Art  of  Love,"  when 
worse  things  of  the  same  kind  were  seen  in  the  pictures 
and  engravings  of  their  temples.* 

As  to  the  worship  of  Bacchus, — a  most  profligate  deity, 
representing  wine  and  strong  drink, — revellings  and  drunk- 
enness were  always  a  part  of  it.  The  victors  in  the  con- 
tests of  drinking,  even  to  Alexander  the  Great,  who  fell  a 
victim  to  one  of  them,  were  rewarded  with  a  crown  of 
leaves  and  a  vessel  of  wine.  Even  Plato,  according  to 
Diogenes  Laertius,  said  that  "  to  drink  wine  to  excess  was 
not  allowable,  except  on  the  festivals  of  the  god  who  was 
the  giver  of  wine." 

As  to  the  rites  in  which  lewdness  and  debauchery  were 
practised  in  honor  of  Venus  and  other  deities,  we  cannot 
defile  our  pages  with  the  mention  of  them.  Not  even  their 
sacred  mysteries  were  free  from  them  in  some  countries  ; 
so  corrupt  were  they  as  at  last  to  require  their  prohibition 
by  public  authority.     St.  Peter  speaks  of  "lasciviousness, 


*  It  were  to  be  wished  that  nothing  of  this  kind  could  be  even  now  charged 
upon  picture-galleries  in  public  and  private  houses,  and  in  the  theatres.  In  the 
latter,  vicious  actions  are  not  condemned  as  they  should  be,  and  false  senti- 
ments are  uttered,  while  the  ladies  are  content  to  hide  their  faces  with  a  fan  or 
handkerchief,  and  pretend  not  to  hear  them. 


MORALS   OF   THE   ANCIENTS.  389 

lusts,  excess  of  wine,  revellings,  banquetings,  in  connec- 
tion with  abominable  idolatries."  The  phih^sophers,  poli- 
ticians, and  rulers  still  encouraged  the  people  to  worship 
their  gods,  and  the  priests  did  not  expose  their  error  or 
seek  to  correct  their  morals. 

The  celebrated  John  Locke,  in  his  treatise  on  the 
"  Keasonableness  of  Christianity,"  says,  "The  people,  un- 
der pain  of  displeasing  the  gods,  were  to  frequent  the 
temples.  Every  one  went  to  the  sacrifices  and  services  ; 
but  the  priests  made  it  not  their  business  to  teach  them 
vh'tue."  In  vain  do  we  look  into  their  books  for  treatises 
on  morals  such  as  we  find  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 

Even  Cicero,  the  great  moralist  of  Rome,  says,  "  The 
gifts  of  fortune  are  to  be  asked  of  God  or  the  gods,  but 
wisdom  comes  from  ourselves."  "Jupiter,"  he  says,  "can- 
not make  us  just,  temperate,  and  wise,  but  gives  us  riches 
and  health,"  etc. 

Well,  then,  does  our  Saviour  say,  "After  all  these  things 
do  the  Gentiles  seek,"  and  exhort  us  to  "seek  first  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  and  its  righteousness."  Happy  those 
to  whom  it  is  said,  "If  any  man  lack  wisdom,  let  him  ask 
of  God,  who  giveth  to  all  men  liberally,  and  upbraideth 
not." 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

ON  HOMER THE  ILIAD,  ODYSSEY,  AND  OTHER  POEMS. 

Homer  is  generally  supposed  to  have  lived  somewhat 
later  than  Hesiod, — according  to  the  great  chronologist, 
Mr.  Hales,  about  twenty-seven  years  later,  but  others 
say  about  a  century  before  him.  The  siege  of  Troy  is 
placed  about  twelve  hundred  years  before  Christ  by  Mr. 
Hales,  though  only  about  nine  hundred  by  Sir  Isaac  New- 
ton. Homer  is  generally  supposed  to  have  written  his 
Iliad  about  three  hundred  years  after  the  siege  of  Troy. 
As  the  Bible  is  the  oldest  of  all  books,  so  Homer's  Iliad 
is  supposed  to  be  the  oldest  of  all  heathen  writings  which 
have  come  down  to  us,  except  in  fragments.  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  and  others  considered  it  indisputable  that  Homer 
must  have  read  all  the  books  of  Moses,  and  borrowed 
many  passages  from  them.  The  contiguity  of  Judea  to 
Troy,  and  the  admitted  fact  that  Homer  lived  and  wrote 
some  time  after  the  Israelites  had  settled  in  the  promised 
land,  bringing  the  books  of  Moses  with  them,  renders  this 
possible,  if  not  probable.  That  such  books  as  Homer's 
Iliad  and  Odyssey  should  be  the  earliest  productions  of 
pagan  genius  is  a  thing  not  for  a  moment  to  be  supposed. 
They  are  too  highly  finished,  too  full  of  history,  philoso- 
phy, and  astronomy,  and  too  refined  to  belong  to  the  first 
stage  of  civilized  life.  The  Greeks  may  not,  generally, 
have  made  great  advances  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  yet  we 
must  remember  how  noble  and  perfect  their  language  was 


ON  HOMER.  391 

in  the  time  of  Homer.  We  must  recollect  tlie  wisdom  of 
the  Egyptians  long  before  the  time  of  Homer,  much  of 
which  was  inscribed  on  the  shield  of  Achilles,  gotten  from 
thence  most  probably  by  Homer  himself,  who  M'as  called 
the  "  strolling  bard"  because  of  his  travels  through  so 
many  countries  in  search  of  knowledge,  and  from  whence 
he  obtained  materials  for  his  poems. 

His  translator,  Pope,  speaks  of  those  "  secrets  of  nature 
and  of  physical  philosophy"  which  he  everywhere  displays  ; 
"  those  innumerable  knowledges,"  and  "  how  he  clothes 
all  the  properties  of  the  elements,  and  the  qualifications 
of  mind,  and  the  virtues  and  vices  in  forms  and  persons." 
Mr.  Pope  says,  "Though  he  has  some  very  low  thoughts, 
yet  has  he  more  noble  and  excellent  ones  than  any  other 
writer  ;  "  in  proof  of  which  he  adduces  the  fact  that  "  the 
writings  of  Homer  have  so  remarkable  a  parity  with 
scripture."  Speaking  of  the  noble  simplicity  of  the  sa- 
cred writers,  and  their  use  of  words  common  at  that  age 
of  the  world,  he  says  that,  as  Homer  is  the  author  nearest 
to  these,  his  style  must  bear  a  greater  resemblance  to  the 
sacred  books  than  any  others.  Several  writers  have  writ- 
ten treatises  instituting  comparisons  between  Homer  and 
the  Bible,  and  adducing  numerous  passages  resembling 
each  other,  and  calling  him  "  the  Bible  of  the  pagan 
world."  Although  we  cannot  agree  with  Lord  Boling-- 
broke.  Pope's  infidel  patron  and  friend,  and  to  whom  he 
dedicated  his  translation,  that  to  those  who  have  read  his 
great  poem 

"  All  other  books  appear  so  mean,  so  poor, 
Verse  will  seem  prose" — 

yet  we  must  admit  that    some  of  Bolingbroke's  school 
might  read  it,  and  mend  their  piety  by  the  same. 

Li  discoursing  on  Homer  we  shall  use  Pope's  translation, 
with  this  remark,  taken  from  Gray's  "  Connections,"  a  very 
valuable  work  on  the  ancient  authors  :    "  They,  however. 


392  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE    CLASSICS. 

wlio  read  Homer  in  the  beautiful  translation  by  Pope, 
will  suppose  the  poet  to  speak  with  more  sacred  dignity 
©f  expression  than  the  original  work  strictly  warrants  us 
to  admit.  The  translator's  mind  being  familiar  with  the 
diction  of  the  scriptures,  he  sometimes  unconsciously  ap- 
plies to  the  heathen  deities  expressions  which  bear  the 
stamp  of  inspiration,  because  consecrated  in  the  hallowed 
language  of  the  Bible.  Such  a  caution  is  the  more  neces- 
sary, as  Mr.  Pope,  in  his  intimacy  with  and  admiration  of 
Lord  Bolingbroke,  whom  he  calls  his 

"  Guide,  philosopher,  and  friend," 

was  too  much  inclined  to  latitudinarian  views.  Thus,  in 
his   "  Universal  Prayer,"  he  invokes  the  Deity  as 

"  Father  of  all,  ia  every  age. 

In  every  clime  adored 
By  saint  by  savage,  and  by  sage, 
Jehovah,  Jove,  or  Lord !" 

in  reading  which  we  are  reminded  of  the  words  of  a  more 
modern  writer,  who  says,  "  I  am  an  Omnist,  and  believe 
in  all  religions." 

Concerning  the  birthplace  and  other  things  which  have 
been  discussed  in  relation  to  Homer,  we  have  little  to  say. 
Ma^iy  lives  of  him  were  written  by  the  ancients,  only  one 
of  which,  that  ascribed  to  Herodotus,  remains  ;  and  that 
so  full  of  fabulous  things  that  it  is  doubted  whether  it  be 
the  work  of  Herodotus,  fond  as  he  was  of  the  marvellous. 
To  him,  who  had  done  so  much  toward  the  honoring  of 
the  gods,  temples  were  built  and  sacrifices  offered  after  his 
death.  Wishing  to  do  ample  justice  to  him  and  the  whole 
pagan  system,  we  now  proceed  to  something  like  an  analy- 
sis of  his  great  poem,  by  selecting  some  choice  passages 
which  will  exhibit  the  leading  traits  of  it. 

First,  I  shall  adduce  a  few  which   show  the  general 


ON   HOMER,  393 

spirit  of  piety  pervading  the  whole  work.  It  should,  in- 
deed, rather  be  called  superstition,  after  the  example  of 
St.  Paul,  who  said  to  the  Athenians,  as  to  their  worship 
of  the  Unknown  God,  "  I  perceive  that  in  all  things  ye 
are  too  superstitious  ;  "  still,  as  any  religion  is  better  than 
atheism,  we  still  pay  some  respect  to  it,  though  it  be  only, 
for  the  most  part,  a  perversion  of  the  truth.  The  princi- 
ple which  pervades  the  poem  is  this :  "Those  who  revere 
the  gods,  the  gods  will  bless." 

"  Blest  is  the  man  who  pays  the  gods  above 
The  constant  tribute  of  respect  and  love." 

The  continual  prayers  and  sacrifices  offered  up  to  the  gods 
before  engaging  in  battle,  or  entering  on  any  great  enter- 
prise, were  also  proofs  of  the  dependence  on  some  power 
above  themselves.  Although  his  heroes  are  generally  dis- 
gustingly boastful,  like  Goliath  of  Gath,  yet  does  the 
poet  sometimes  remind  us  of  the  youthful  and  pious 
David : 

"  If  thou  hast  strength,  'twas  Heaven  that  strength  bestowed, 
For  know,  vain  man,  that  valor  is  from  God : 
'Tis  man's  to  fight,  but  Heaven  to  give  success.". 

His  two  great  heroes.  Hector  and  Achilles,  are  both 
made  to  bear  testimony  to  religion,  each  in  his  own  way. 
Hector,  the  more  amiable  and  pious,  thus  denounces  the 
atheist : 

"  The  weakest  atheist  wretch  all  heaven  defies. 
But  shrinks  and  shudders  when  the  thunder  flies." 

Even  the  monster  Achilles  is  not  wanting  in  this  respect. 
His  reverence  for  the  ministers  of  God,  and  of  God  through 
them,  is  most  profound.  Although  proudly  defying  the 
great  Agamemnon,  he  humbly  appeals  to  the  priest  and 
prophet : 


394  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

"  Chalcas  the  Wise,  the  Grecian  priest  and  guide, 
That  sacred  seer,  whose  comprehensive  view 
The  past,  the  present,  and  the  future  knew, 
Perliaps,  with  added  sacrifice  and  prayer. 
The  priest  may  pardon,  and  the  god  may  spare." 

In  M'liicli  passage  we  have  also  the  recognition  of  an 
order  of  prophets  which  carries  us  back  to  the  patriar- 
chal times,  when  ISToah,  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  were 
the  priests  and  prophets,  offering  sacrifices  and  predicting 
the  future  histories  of  their  descendants. 

Secondly,  Homer's  account  of.  God  and  the  gods.  In 
Homer  we  find  the  same  confusion  and  contradiction  on 
this  subject  which  we  have  shown  to  exist  in  so  many  of 
the  mythologists  and  philosophers.  Sometimes  he  ascribes 
the  highest  attributes  to  Jupiter,  making  him  equal  to 
the  self-existent  and  eternal  God,  as  set  forth  by  Moses  ; 
and  then  he  throws  all  into  confusion  again.  Thus  he  is 
sometimes  spoken  of  as 

"  Supreme  of  gods,  unbounded  and  alone, 
Who  in  the  heaven  of  heavens  hast  fixed  thy  tlirone !" 

Again, — 

"  Immortal  Jove,  high  heaven's  supremest  Lord ! 
The  united  strength  of  all  the  gods  above 
In  vain  resists  the  omnipotence  of  Jove." 

Again, — 

"  The  sire  of  all  the  gods  and  all  the  ethereal  train." 

Again, — 

"  The  high  tribunal  of  immortal  Jove, 
Father  of  all  the  gods." 

Again, — 

"And  know  the  Almighty  is  the  God  of  gods." 
Again, — 

"  0  first  and  greatest  God — by  gods  adored  !" 


ON  HOMER.  395 

Again, — 

"  If  I  but  stretch  this  hand, 
I  heave  the  gods,  the  ocean,  and  the  land." 

And  yet  in  this  same  book  we  have  the  history  of  the 
earthly  origin  and  birth  of  this  great  Jupiter.  Neptune 
is  made  to  give  this  history  of  him  : 

"  Three  brother  deities  from  Saturn  came. 
And  ancient  Rhea,  earth's  immortal  dame. 
Assigned  by  lot,  our  triple  rule  we  know  : 
Infernal  Pluto  sways  the  realms  below. 
O'er  the  wide  clouds,  and  o'er  the  starry  plain 
Ethereal  Jove  extends  his  high  domain. 
My  court  beneath  the  hoary  waves  I  keep, 
And  hush  the  roaring  of  the  sacred  deep. 
Olympus  and  the  earth  in  common  lie." 

Such  was  the  division  by  lot  between  the  three  sons  of 
Saturn  ;  but  Jupiter  is  charged  by  Neptune  with  en- 
croaching on.  his  dominion,  and  is  thus  rebuked  by  him  : 

"  What  claim  has  here  the  tyrant  of  the  sky  ? 
Far  in  the  distant  clouds  let  him  control, 
And  awe  the  younger  brethren  of  the  pole. 
There  to  his  children  his  command  be  given, —      _ 
The  trembling,  servile  second  race  of  heaven," 

Here  we  have  the  wliole  history  of  the  heathen  gods. 
The  three  sons  of  Saturn,  who  were  the  great  gods  of 
heaven,  hell,  and  the  sea,  the  earth  being  common  to 
them  all,  are  the  first  and  greatest.  "  The  servile  second 
race  of  heaven  "  are  the  hero-gods,  the  inferior  deities, 
who  came  after  these.  Homer  makes  Juno,  the  sister 
and  wife  of  Jupiter,  give  us  some  account  of  their  old 
parents,  who  had  by  some  means  been  gotten  rid  of,  and 
sent  down  into  a  cavern  of  the  sea.  Old  Saturn  and  Rhea, 
or  old  Ocean  and  Tethys,  are  thus  described  by  Juno,  who 
goes  to  "  those  remote  abodes  :" 


396  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

"Where  the  great  parents,  sacred  source  of  gods, 
Ocean  and  Tethys,  their  old  empire  keep. 
In  their  kind  arms  my  tender  years  were  past, 
What  time  old  Saturn,  from  Olympus  cast. 
Of  upper  heaven  to  Jove  resigned  the  reign. 
Whelmed  under  the  huge  mass  of  earth  and  main." 

Jupiter,  having  thus  dethroned  his  father,  became  the 
supreme  ruler  of  the  world,  and  his  descendants  are  the 
inferior  deities  or  demi-gods  with  which  the  pagan  my- 
thology is  filled.  Still  there  are  evidences  of  the  recog- 
nition, not  only  of  Saturn  or  old  Ocean,  and  Rhea  or 
Tethys,  but  of  one  wdio  was  before  all  these  ;  and  Homer 
is  continually  endeavoring  to  invest  Jupiter  with  the  at- 
tributes of  the  ancient  one,  while  at  the  same  time  con- 
tinuing to  him  his  earthly  character.  This  is  the  true 
secret  of  all  the  confusion  that  exists  on  this  subject. 

homer's   account   of   JUPITER   AS    IDENTIFIED   WITH   FATE. 

Thus,— 

"Angry  Jove  and  all  compelling  Fate." 
Again, — 

"  The  hand  of  Fate  works  out  our  will." 
Again, — 

"  Such  was  our  word,  and  Fate  our  word  obeys." 
Again, — 

"  Thus  have  I  spoken,  and  what  I  speak  is  Fate  : 
Celestial  states,  immortal  gods,  give  ear  ! 
Hear  our  decree,  and  reverence  what  ye  hear ! 
The  fixed  decree  which  not  all  heaven  can  move, 
Thou,  Fate,  fulfil  it,  and  ye  powers,  approve  !" 

Sometimes  he  speaks  of  a  fatal  Chance,  as  well  as  "  all- 
compelling  Fate." 

THE   GOODNESS    AND    PERFECTION   OF   JUPITER. 

"  '  'Tis  just,'  said  Priam  to  the  sire  above, 
'  To  raise  our  hands  ;  for  who  so  good  as  Jove  ? ' " 


ON  HOMER.  897 

Again, — 

"  Father  of  gods,  oh  I  ever  just  and  true." 
Again,— 

"  Seek  not  thou  to  find 
The  sacred  councils  of  the  eternal  mind  ; 
Whatever  is — that  ought  to  be." 

THE    DEFECTS    OF   JUPITER   AND    THE    OTHER    GODS. 

So  glaring  are  their  vices,  that  both  gods  and  men  up- 
braid them.     Thus  Achilles  reviles  Apollo  : 

"  Powerful  of  godhead,  and  of  fraud  divine  ! 
Mean  fame,  alas  1  for  one  of  heavenly  train, 
To  cheat  a  mortal  who  repines  in  vain." 

Another  upbraids  Jove  himself  thus  : 

'•  Tn  powers  immortal  who  can  now  believe ;" 
Cans't  thou  too  flatter,  and  can  Jove  deceive  ?" 

Another  tauntingly  says  to  him,  in  allusion  to  his  adul- 
teries : 

"  Loth  as  thou  art  to  punish  lust." 

On  one  occasion  Jupiter  is  represented  as  saying  : 

"  Let  men  their  days  in  senseless  strife  employ, 
"VVe  in  eternal  peace  and  constai^it  joy." 

And  yet  they  were  constantly  engaged  in  intrigues  on 
the  one  side  or  the  other,  and  sometimes  came  down  from 
Olympus  to  take  part  in  the  battles  on  the  fields  of  Troy. 


HOMER  ON  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  FALL  OF  MAN,  ETC. 

He  speaks  of  man  as  "calamitous  by  birth."     Priam  is 
made  thus  to  account  for  evil : 

"  Two  urns  by  Jove's  high  throne  have  ever  stood, 
The  source  of  evil  one,  and  one  of  good. 
From  these  the  cup  of  man  he  fills  ; 
Blessings  to  these,  to  those  dispensing  ills, — 


398  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

To  most  he  mingles  both. 

The  happiest  tastes  not  happiness  sincere, 

But  finds  the  cordial  draft  is  dashed  with  care." 

Elsewlierc  it  is  said  : 

"  Whatever  we  feel,  'tis  Jove  inflicts  the  blow  ; 
And  when  Jove  gave  us  life,  he  gave  us  woe." 


HOMEE  ON  A  FUTUEE  STATE DAEK  AND  CONTEADIGTOEY. 

Thus  one  is  made  to  say  to  Andromache  : 

"  Thy  Hector,  wrapped  in  everlasting  sleep, 
Shall  neither  hear  thee  sigh  nor  see  thee  weep." 

And  Andromache,  in  lier  last  lament,  says  : 

"  Thou  to  the  dismal  realms  forever  gone, 
And  I — abandoned,  desolate,  alone." 

Another  is  made  to  say  of  Hades,  or  Elysium  : 

"  If  in  that  gloom,  which  light  must  never  know, 
The  deeds  of  mortals  touch  the  ghosts  below. 

So  comfortless  was  the  thought  of  death,  that  old  Priam, 
the  venerable  and  pious  king  of  Troy,  is  nevertheless 
obliged  to  beseech  the  gods  to  send  him 

"A  willing  ghost  to  Pluto's  dreary  realm." 

It  was  of  this  Hades,  or  Elysium,  that  Achilles  said  : 

"  Who  dares  think  one  thing  and  another  tell ! 
My  soul  detests  him  as  the  gates  of  hell." 

But  still  this  place  was  considered  better  than  to  wander 
about,  without  any  abode,  after  death,  which  was  thought 
to  be  the  case  witli  those  who  were  buried  without  funeral 
rites. 

Therefore  Patroclus,  in  his  apparition  to  Achilles,  begs 
that  he  will  discharge  that  duty  to  him  : 


ON   HOMER.  399 

"  Let  my  pale  corse  the  rites  of  funeral  know, 
And  give  me  entrance  to  the  shades  below. 
Till  then  the  spirit  knows  no  resting-place  ; 
But  here  and  there  the  unbodied  spectres  chase 
The  vagrant  dead  around  the  dark  abode, 
Forbid  to  cross  the  irremeable  flood." 

But  whether  in  Hades,  or  wandering  around  it,  Homer 
represents  the  dead  as  clothed  with  some  light,  ethereal 
bodies. 

When  the  apparition  of  Patroclas  vanishes,  Achilles 
says : 

"'Tis  true,  'tis  certfrin,  man  though  dead  retains 
Part  of  himself ;  the  immortal  mind  remains. 
The  form  subsists  without  the  body's  aid. 
Aerial  semblance  and  an  empty  shade. 
This  night  my  fi-iend,  in  battle  lost, 
Stood  at  my  side,  a  pensive,  plaintive  ghost : 
E'en  now  familiar  as  in  life  he  came — 
Alas  !  how  different,  and  j^et  how  like  the  same  !" 

HOMER    ON    ANNUAL   SACRIFICES. 

These  are  everywhere  mentioned  as  acceptable,  even 
when  human  victims  were  offered.  Let  one  example  suf- 
fice. Achilles,  as  a  pious  offering  to  the  gods,  or  to  the 
soul  of  Patroclus,  offered  up  on  his  huge  funeral  pile 
not  only  hundreds  of  animals,  sheep,  and  oxen,  but  also 
twelve  Trojan  captives  : 

"  Then,  last  of  all,  and  terrible  to  tell, 
Twelve  Trojan  captives  fell." 

HOMER   ON    THE    EFFICACY   OF   PRAYER. 

"  The  gods,  the  great  and  only  wise. 
Are  moved  by  offerings,  vows,  and  sacrifice. 
Offending  man  their  high  compassion  wins, 
And  daily  prayers  atone  for  daily  sins." 


400  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  personifications  and  deifi- 
cations in  the  pagan  system,  is  that  of  prayers  ;  they  are 
represented  as 

"  Jove's  daughters  of  celestial  race, 
With  humble  mien  and  with  dejected  eyes, 
Mediating  at  the  throne  of  grace." 


homer's  doctrine  of  divine  guidance  and  inspiration. 

Ko  sentiments  or  words  are  more  frequently  in  the 
months  of  Homer's  heroes  than  this, — 

"Some  god  within  commands,  and  I  obey." 


HOMER   ON   THE   IGNORANCE  OF   M0RT^y:.S. 

The  Muses  are  called 

"  All-knowing  goddesses,  immortal  Nine, 
Seated  around  the  throne  divine." 

'•  We  wretched  mortals,  lost  in  doubts  below, 
But  guess  by  rumor,  and  but  boast  we  know. 
Heaven  only  knows,  for^He  disposes  all." 

HOMER   ON    THE   LONG   LIVES    OF   THE   ANCIENTS. 

The  long  lives  and  superior  strength  of  the  ancients  are 
thus  set  forth.     After  saying  of  old  Nestor, 

"Two  ages  o'er  his  native  realm  he  reigned. 
And  now  the  example  of  the  third  remain'd," 


Nestor  is  made  to  say, 


"  A  godlike  race  of  heroes  once  I  knew, 
Such  as  no  more  these  aged  eyes  shall  view." 


ON   HOMER.  401 

HOMEK   ON    KEVENGE. 

.Not  only  is  his  great  hero  the  very  personification  of  re- 
venge, or  another  name  for  it,  but  even  old  Hecuba,  the 
pious  and  venerable  mother  of  Hector,  in  the  midst  of  her 
grief  for  his  death,  is  made  to  exclaim,  as  to  Achilles, 

"  Oh  !  in  Lis  dearest  blood  miglit  I  allay 
My  rage,  and  these  barbarities  repay." 

And  the  general  principle  or  spirit  of  his  poem  is, 
"My  friend  must  hate  the  man  who  injures  mo." 

HOMER    ON   THE   PATRIOTISM   OF   AGAMEMNON. 

There  is  one  noble  passage  for  statesmen  and  rulers 
which  must  not  be  omitted.  While  all  others  were  in  pro- 
found sleep,  he  is  tlius  described  : 

"All  but  the  king;  with  various  thoughts  oppressed, 
Ilis  country's  cares  lay  rolling  on  his  breast. 
Inly  he  groans." 


HOMER   ON    THE   DEIFICATION    OF   ALL   NATURE. 

Not  only  were  heroes  turned  into  gods,  virgins  into 
nymphs  and  muses,  virtues  and  vices  into  graces  and 
furies,  but  everything  in  nature  was  deified.  Thus  the 
river  Zanthus,  near  Troy,  which  was  called  "  the  immor- 
tal progeny  of  Jove,"  was  turned  into  a  god,  and  engages 
against  Achilles,  rolling  its  tumultuous  waves  over  him, 
and  threatening  to  overwhelm  him.  This  was  only  a  part 
of  the  theology  of  his  day  ;  for  rivers  were  \vorshipj)ed  in 
various  parts  of  the  world. 
2G 


402  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 


THE    ODYSSEY,    OR   WANDERINGS     OF   ULYSSES    FROM   TROY 
TO    ITHACA. 

In  tills  poem  there  are  some  few  things,  not  noticed  in 
the  Iliad,  which  may  contribute  to  the  object  of  this  book. 
Thus  the  word  "  daimon,"  sometimes  improperly  trans- 
lated, in  the  New  Testament,  devils,  when  it  should  be 
gods, — that  is,  hero-gods,  or  guardian  spirits,  (according  to 
the  use  of  it  in  the  times  of  the  New  Testament,) — is  used 
by  Homer  to  signify  Dens,  or  God,  and  not  a  guardian 
spirit,  or  good  genius,  such  as  Socrates  believed  in. 

It  was  not  until  after  the  time  of  Homer  that  it  was  used 
to  signify  a  guardian  spirit.  The  commentator  on  the 
Odyssey  quotes  the  following  from  Rodolph  :  "  Antiquis- 
simis  temporibus  daimon  nihil  erat  quam  deus."  An- 
other proof  this  that  the  further  we  go  back  into  antiquity, 
the  more  did  language  recognize  the  Deity. 

Another  passage  may  well  excite  a  smile  in  those  whom 
the  scriptures  have  taught  to  consider  the  highest  praise 
to  be  that  given  to  Nathanael  by  our  Lord,  "  Behold  an 
Israelite  Indeed,  in  whom  is  no  guile."  Minerva,  speak- 
ing to  Telemachus  in  praise  of  his  father  Ulysses,  says, 
"Divine  Ulysses,  your  father,  surpassed  much  in  all  kinds 
of  deceit." 

The  words  God  and  Jove  are  used  in  the  Odyssey,  as 
elsewhere,  to  represent  some  supreme  Numen ;  thus  the  old 
swineherd,  Eumeus,  in  entertaining  his  ancient  but  now 
unknown  master,  Ulysses,  says,  "For  all  strangers  and 
beggars  are  from  Jove  ;  "  but  again  he  says  to  his  guest, 
"  Eat,  O  divine  one  of  my  guests  !  and  delight  thyself  with 
these  things,  such  as  are  present;  for  God  bestows  one 
thing  and  refuses  another,  whatever  he  wills  in  his  own 
mind,  for  he  can  do  all  things." 


ON  HOMER.  403 


homer's  hymns. 


Hymns  and  singing  formed  a  part  of  the  worship  of  the 
gods.  They,  of  course,  partook  of  the  character  and  cele- 
brated the  deeds  of  the  gods.  Homer  has  hymns  to  all  the 
great  gods ;  very  long  ones  to  some,  to  Jupiter  a  very 
short  one.  He  seems  to  he  regarded  by  the  mythologists 
and  some  of  the  pliilosophers  of  the  East  as  too  high  or 
too  far  off  to  be  reached  or  troubled,  except  through  the 
inferior  and  mediating  gods.  Homer  lavishes  titles  upon 
him,  and  nothing  else,  calling  him  "  the  many-named," 
*'tlie  cloud-compelling,"  "the  loud-sounding,"  "the  king 
of  kings,"  etc. 

In  the  hymn  to  the  "  far-darting  Apollo,"  son  of  Jupiter 
and  Latona,  feared  by  all  the  gods  as  he  moves  through 
the  house  of  Jove,  he  recounts  the  story  of  his  birth  in  the 
Isle  of  Delos,  and  of  all  the  mighty  deeds  and  amours 
ascribed  to  him.  In  his  hymn  to  Venus,  daughter  of  Jupi- 
ter and  Juno,  we  may  expect  to  find  something  accordant 
with  that  character  which  the  mere  mention  of  her  name 
suggests.  Into  her  Jupiter  himself  inspires  the  love  of 
mortals  as  well  as  of  gods.  She  is  formed  to  excite  desire 
in  both.  She  becomes  the  mother  of  godlike  ^neas, 
Anchises  being  his  father. 

To  many-clustered  Bacchus,  also,  crowned  with  joy  and 
laurel,  he  has  songs,  though  they  do  not  partake  of  the 
character  into  which  bacchanalian  songs  afterward  de- 
generated, for,  by  universal  consent  of  the  ancients,  he  was 
no  other  than  Noah  or  Dionusus,  the  god  of  the  ark ;  and 
it  is  probable  that  his  planting  a  vineyard  and  intoxication 
by  wine,  as  mentioned  by  Moses,  may  have  given  rise  to 
this  feature  in  his  worship  in  after  times. 

One  of  the  Greek  poets,  Theognis,  who  lived  about  550 
years  before  Christ,  in  his  address  to  Simonides,  gives  an 


404  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

account  of  a  convivial  feast  in  his  clay,  upbraiding  some 
who  were  present  with  intemperance,  and  thus  concludes: 

"  I  shall  retire ;  the  rule,  I  think,  is  right, 
Not  absolutely  drunk,  nor  sober  quite." 

It  is  to  be  feared  that  some  in  our  own  day,  in  words  as 
well  as  deeds,  advocate  the  above  sentiment. 

I  once  heard  of  a  lady  who,  in  defending  a  favorite 
minister  from  the  charge  of  intemperance,  said,  that 
though  she  had  never  seen  him  drunk,  yet  she  had  often 
seen  him  ^^gentlemanly  merry'^''  after  dinner.  This  was 
not  deemed  unbecoming  in  the  man  of  Grod.  I  fear  it  is 
too  true,  not  only  of  many  Christian  professors,  but  of  some 
ministers  of  religion,  that  after  dinner  they  are 

"Not  absolutely  drunk,  nor  sober  quite." 

His  hymn  to  Mars  begins  with  a  string  of  titles :  "Most 
mighty  Mars,"  "  weigher-down  of  chariots,"  "  gold  cas- 
qued,"  "great-minded,"  "shield-bearing,"  "city  preser- 
ver," "  brass-equipped,"  "  untired,"  "  powerful  in  the 
spear,"  "  bulwark  of  Olympus,"  "  revolving  thy  fiery  circle 
among  the  seven  wandering  stars." 

How  difierent  from  the  names  of  God,  as  given  in  our 
scriptures  :  "  Our  Father,  who  art  in  heaven,"  "  Onr  Lord," 
"  Jehovah,"  "  God  of  love  and  peace." 

When  we  read  of  all  these  things  in  the  sacred  poetry 
of  the  heathen,  it  helps  us  to  understand  the  apostle's  ad- 
monition to  "sing  together  in  psalms  and  hymns  and 
spiritual  songs;  singing  and  making  melody  in  our  hearts 
to  the  Lord,"  and  not  to  Bacchus,  Yenus,  Apollo,  and 
others  whose  worship  was  an  abomination. 

Li  these  hymns  to  the  various  gods  we  have  the  whole 
system  of  pagan  idolatry,  according  to  Homer  and  Hesiod. 
Thus  we  have  one  to  the  Earth  as  mother  of  all,  mother 


ON   HOMER,  405 

of  gods  and  men,  wife  of  the  heavens  ;  also  to  the  sun  and 
moon  as  deities.  In  tliis  there  is  reference  to  the  per- 
verted truth  that  Coehis,  or  God,  made  man  and  otlier 
things  out  of  the  earth,  which  is  called  his  wife ;  and  then 
made  the  sun  and  moon.  Saturn  and  Rhea,  the  son  and 
daughter  of  Coelus  and  Terra — the  first  of  human  beings 
— were  none  other  than  Adam  and  Eve,  formed,  as  to  their 
bodies,  out  of  the  earth,  and  as  to  their  souls,  G-od  breathed 
them  into  their  bodies. 

We  have  also  mention,  in  these  hymns,  of  Pluto,  the  god 
of  hell,  under  the  name  of  Hades — "Hades,  dark-haired 
Hades  " — a  name  often  used  in  scripture,  and  which  we 
translate  hell. 


CHAPTEE    XXIX. 


HESIOD   AND   CALLIMACHrS. 


I  SHALL  not  enter  into  any  further  discussion  of  the  com- 
parative ages  of  Homer  and  Hesiod.  Herodotus,  the 
father  of  history,  says,  "  Homer  and  Hesiod  lived,  as  I 
consider,  not  more  tlian  four  hundred  years  before  my 
time  ;"  and  he  lived  between  four  and  five  hundred  years 
before  Christ.  But,  as  was  said  in  our  last  chapter,  others 
place  Hesiod  twenty-seven  years  before  Homer ;  others 
again  make  him  one  hundred  years  after  him. 

It  matters  little,  as  to  the  object  of  iny  book,  how  the 
question  is  settled.  In  main  points  they  ai'e  agreed. 
Homer  introduces  the  gods  in  a  desultory  manner,  only 
to  aid  in  the  great  poem  which  has  immortalized  him.  He- 
siod, whether  coming  before  or  after  Homer,  gives  us  a 
regular  history  of  the  creation,  and  the  gods  and  hero- 
gods, — that  is,  the  Cosmogony,  Theogony.  and  Heroology, 
according  to  the  prevailing  traditions  or  his  own  fancy. 
We  have  already  seen  how  Plato,  Socrates,  Zenophanes, 
and  others  denounced  his  account  of  the  gods,  as  derog- 
atory to  them  and  injurious  to  men.* 

HIS  THEOGONY. 

Hesiod  professes  to  write  under  the  inspiration  of  the 
Muses,  and 

*  I  quote  from  the  translation  by  Elton. 


HESIOD   AND   CALLIMACHUS.  407 

"  They  to  Hesiod  erst 
Have  taught  their  stately  song." 

But  lie  takes  it  from  tlieir  own  lips : 

"  They  a  voice 
Immortal  uttering,  first  in  song  proclaim 
The  race  of  venerable  gods,  who  rose 
From  the  beginning,  whom  the  spacious  Heaven 
And  Earth  produced  ;  and  all  the  deities 
From  them  successive  sprung,  dispensing  good." 

The  first  of  the  venerable  gods  produced  by  heaven  and 
earth  are  Saturn  and  Rhea,  descended  from  Cceliis  and 
Terra.  This  is  believed  to  be  a  tradition  of  Adam  and 
Eve,  made  by  God,  or  Ccelus,  out  of  clay,  or  lime,  Saturn 
is  cast  out  of  the  throne  by  Jupiter,  his  eldest  son,  and 
banished  to  the  deep  caverns  of  ocean.  This  is  supposed 
to  be  a  mutilation  of  Adam's  banishment  from  paradise. 
Jupiter  now  becomes  the  supreme  power,  and  though 
there  are  other  children  born  of  Saturn  and  Rhea,  as  Juno, 
Pluto,  and  Neptune,  he  reigns  over  all.  Juno  becomes 
his  sister-wife,  {uxor  et  sorO)\)  as  must  needs  have  been  the 
case  in  the  infancy  of  mankind.  The  Muses  are  repre- 
sented as  thus  praising  him  : 

"Next  also  Jove,  the  sire  of  gods  and  men, 
They  praise." 

"  How  excellent  is  he." 

"  Above  all  gods— in  his  might  supreme." 

"  He  reigns  in  heaven." 

"  Disposes  all  things,"  etc.,  etc. 

The  Muses  then  proceed 

"  To  sing  the  laws  that  bind 
The  universal  heavens,  the  manners  pure 
Of  deathless  gods." 


408  TtlE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

They  are  then  called  to 

"  Declare  how  first  the  gods  and  earth  became." 
"  From  the  beginning — say  who  first  arose." 

And  this  is  the  answer : 

"  First  chaos  was  ;  next  ample-bosomed  earth, 
The  seat  eternal  and  immovable 
Of  deathless  gods." 

Then,— 

"  The  gloomy  Tartarus." 

"  Love  then  arose, 
Most  beauteous  of  immortals." 

By  means  of  Love,  night  or  darkness  sprang  from 
chaos;  and  day  or  light  from  darkness.  Then,  by  the 
same  principle,  the  heavenly  bodies  were  born  from  the 
earth.     Then  was  Saturn  born, 

"  Youngest  in  birth. 
The  sternest  of  her  sons  ;  and  he  abhorred 
The  sii'e  that  gave  him  life." 

Thus  was  Adam  made  last  of  all  creation,  and  he  dis- 
obeyed his  heavenly  Father. 

Then  follows  an  account  of  the  giants 

"  Who  all  their  sire  abhorred, 
From  the  begiiming ;  all  his  race  he  seized, 
As  each  was  born,  and  hid  in  cave  profound, 
Nor  e'er  released  to  day  ;  and  in  his  work 
Malign  exulted." 

Then  come  the  wars  of  the  giants  against  heaven,  in 
which  Coelus  is  overthrown  and  Saturn  triumphant ;  but 
he  destroys  his  male  children,  lest  one  of  them  should 
supplant  him.  Jupiter  is  roused  by  his  mother,  and  con- 
tends with  Saturn  his  son,  and  casts  him  from  his  throne. 


HESIOD   AND    CALLIMACHUS.  409 

This  is  Ilesiod's  battle  of  the  Titans  and  the  gods,  or  the 
followers  of  Saturn  and  of  Jupiter,  which  ends  in  the  de- 
struction of  the  Titans  or  Saturnians,  and  tlie  establish- 
ment of  Jupiter  as  the  god  and  monarch  of  the  earth. 


HESIOD  S   POEM   ON   WORKS    AND   DAYS. 

In  the  opening  of  this  poem  we  are  reminded  of  the 
sentence  pronounced  on  man :  "  In  the  sweat  of  thy  face 
shalt  thou  eat  thy  bread ;"  and  of  the  curse  on  the  earth, 
"  Thorns  also  and  thistles  shall  it  bring  forth." 

"  The  food  of  man  in  deep  concealment  lies, 
The  angry  gods  have  veiled  it  from  our  eyes ; 
Else  had  one  day  supplied  sufficient  cheer, 
And,  though  inactive,  fed  thee  through  the  year." 

There  are  passages  in  Ilesiod's  "Works  and  Days,"  as 
well  as  in  his  Theogony,  wliicli  bear  testimony  to  the 
Mosaic  account  of  woman's  share  in  the  evils  brought  upon 
the  human  race. 

At  the  instigation  of  Jupiter,  Yulcan 

"  Moulded  from  the  yielding  clay 
A  bashful  virgin's  image ; 
And  lo  !  from  her  descend  the  tender  sex 
Of  woman  :  a  pernicious  kind. 
A  bane  to  men ; 
111  helpmates  of  intolerable  toils." 

The  above  is  from  the  Theogony. 
In  his  "  Works  and  Days,"  he  says, 

"  The  name  Pandora  to  the  maid  was  given  ; 
For  all  the  gods  conferred  a  gifted  grace 
To  crown  this  mischief  of  the  mortal  race." 

Then  comes  the  account  of  the  introduction  of  evil  into 
the  world  through  woman  ;  who,  though  forbidden  to  do 


410  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

it,  througli  curiosity  opens  a  casket  containing  all  tlie  ills 
of  life. 

"  The  woman's  hands  an  ample  casket  bear, 
She  Hfts  the  lid,  she  scatters  ills  in  air ; 
Hope  sole  remained  within,  nor  took  her  flight, 
Beneath  the  casket's  verge  concealed  from  sight. 
With  ills  the  land  is  rife,  with  ills  the  sea. 
Diseases  haunt  our  fi'ail  liumanity  ; 
Now  swift  the  days  of  manhood  pass  away. 
And  misery's  pressure  makes  the  temples  gray." 

The  description  of  the  diiferent  ages  deserves  insertion 
here.  Though  agreeing  generally  with  Ovid  and  others, 
it  differs  in  this  respect,  that  he  adds  a  fifth  age — that  of 
the  hero-gods : 

"  When  gods  alike  and  mortals  rose  to  birth, 
A  golden  race  the  immortal  formed  on  earth. 
Like  gods  they  lived,  with  calm,  untroubled  mind, 
Free  from  the  toil  and  anguish  of  our  kind. 
The  virtuous  many  dwelt  in  common,  blest, 
And  all,  unenvying,  share  what  all  in  peace  possest. 
When  on  this  race  the  verdant  earth  had  lain, 
By  Jove's  high  will  there  rose  a  genii-train  : 
Earth-wandering  demons,  they  their  charge  began. 
The  ministers  of  good,  and  guards  to  man. 

Then  formed  the  gods  a  second  race  of  men. 

Degenerate  far — and  silver  years  began. 

Unlike  the  mortals  of  a  golden  kind. 

Unlike  in  frame  of  limbs,  and  mould  of  mind. 

Nor  feared  tliey  heaven  :    them  angry  Jove  engulfed." 

The  third  race  seem  to  have  been  located  on  this  side  the 
engulfing  flood : 

"  The  sire  of  earth  and  heaven  created  then 
A  race,  the  third,  of  many-languaged  men  ; 
Their  thoughts  were  bent  on  violence  alone. 
The  deed  of  battle  and  the  dying  groan ; 
They  by  each  others'  hands  inglorious  fell, 
In  horrid  darkness  plunged,  the  house  of  hell." 


HESIOD  AND   CALLIMACHUS.  411 

Then  comes  the  fourth  age  : 

"  Them  when  the  abyss  had  covered  from  tlie  skies, 
Lo !  tlie  fourth  age  on  nurturing  earth  arise  : 
Jove  formed  the  race  a  better,  juster  line, 
A  race  of  heroes,  and  of  stamp  divine ; 
Liglits  of  the  age,  that  rose  before  our  own 
As  demi-gods,  o'er  earth's  Avide  region  known." 

This  was  the  age  of  Hercules,  and  Cadmus,  and  the  Tro- 
jan heroes. 

Then  came  the  fifth  or  iron  age,  in  which  the  poet 
lived : 

"  Oh !  would  that  nature  had  denied  me  birth 
Midst  this  fifth  age,  this  iron  age  of  earth ! 
Corrupt  the  age,  with  toils  and  griefs  opprest, 
Nor  day  nor  night  can  yield  a  pause  of  rest." 

A  few  passages  from  the  part  entitled  "  Tlie  Works" 
will  show  what  in  it  is  agreeable  to  the  scriptures,  and 
what  contrary  to  them.  Honest  industry  is  thus  com- 
mended : 

"Love  every  seemly  toil,  that  so  the  store 
Of  foodfnl  seasons  heap  thy  garner's  floor ; 
From  labor  shalt  thou  with  the  love  be  blest 
Of  men  and  gods — the  slothful  they  detest." 

The  worship  of  the  heart  and  purity  of  life  enjoined  : 

"  With  thy  best  means  perform  the  ritual  part, 
Outwardly  pure,  and  spotless  at  the  heart. 
E'er  on  thy  nightly  couch  thy  limbs  be  laid, 
Or  when  the  stars  from  sacred  sunrise  fade." 

Love  of  friends  and  hatred  of  enemies  enjoined  : 

"  Let  friends,  oft  bidden,  to  thy  feast  rei)air. 
Let  not  a  foe  the  social  moment  share. 
Who  loves  thee  love,  him  woo  that  friendly  woos." 

Of  brotherly  love: 

"  If  he  the  first  by  word  or  deed  oflTend, 
Doubly  thy  just  resentment  may  descend. 


412  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE    CLASSICS. 

If,  with  conciliiiting  love  possest, 

lie  come  atoning,  clasp  hiin  to  thy  breast." 

Let  the  two  foregoing  sentiments  be  compared  witli  the 
one  enjoined  on  Christians. 


ON   THE    DAYS  OF   HESIOD. 

In  the  second  part  of  the  poem,  called  "  The  Days,"  he 
enjoins  the  strict  observance  of  all  the  feasts  and  fasts  of 
the  pagan  calendar.  They  are  very  numerous,  and  of 
divine  appointment : 

"  Lo !  these,  the  days  appointed  from  above 
By  the  deep  councils  of  all  sapient  Jove ; 
A  decent  heed  thy  slaves  enjoin  to  pay. 
And  well  observe  each  Jove-appointed  day." 

The  most  superstitions  regard  must  be  paid  to  all  the 
changes  of  the  moon,  in  sowing  and  planting.  In  every 
domestic  operation  they  paid  regard  to  her  progress  each 
day,  such  as  the  ignorant  in  some  countries  pay  now  : 

"  Oh !  fortunate  the  man !   oh  !  blest  is  he, 
Who  skilled  in  these  fulfils  his  ministry. 
He,  to  whose  note  the  auguries  are  given, 
No  rite  transgressed,  and  void  of  blame  to  heaven." 

We  add  to  the  above  a  few  lines  of  the  poet  Callima- 
chus,  who  flourished  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
before  Christ,  and  was  coeval  w^ith  the  poet  Aratus,  from 
whom  St.  Paul  quotes.  This  shows  what  had  been  added 
to  the  Theogony  of  Ilesiod  in  the  interval  between  the 
periods  in  which  they  lived.  His  hymn  to  Jupiter  proves 
him  to  be  in  much  doubt  as  to  the  birthplace  of  Jupiter, 
and  he  invokes  the  aid  of  the  god  to  find  it  out : 

"  But  say,  thou  first  and  greatest  power  above, 
Shall  I  Dictean  or  Lycean  Jove 
Attempt  to  sing?     Who  knows  thy  mighty  line, 
And  who  can  tell,  except  by  power  divine, 


HESIOD   AND   CALLIMACIIUS.  413 

If  Ida's  hills  thy  sacred  birth  may  claim, 
Or  fair  Arcadia  boast  an  equal  fame  ? 
The  Cretans,  prone  to  falsehood,  vaunt  in  vain, 
And  impious  built  thy  tomb  on  Dicte's  plain  ; 
For  Jove,  the  immortal  king,  shall  never  die, 
But  reign  o'er  men  and  gods  above  the  sky." 

But   althongli   the  poet  asserts  his   innnortality,  yet  he 
adopts  Ilesiod's  account  of  his  birth  and  birtliplace : 

"In  higli  Parrhasia  lihea  bore  the  god, 
Where  gloomy  forests  on  the  mountains  nod." 

Callimachus  differs  from  those  who  held  that  the  earth 
and  heavens  were  divided  between  the  three  sons  of  Sat- 
urn,— Pluto,  I^^eptune,  and  Jupiter  : 

"  Jove,  yet  a  child,  the  prize  of  wisdom  hears 
From  both  his  brethren  in  maturer  years, 
And  both  agreed  the  empire  of  high  heaven, 
Though  theirs  by  birthright,  should  to  Jove  be  given  : 
Yet  ancient  poets  idle  fictions  tell 
That  lots  were  cast  for  heaven,  for  earth,  and  hell. 
Chance  placed  not  Jove  in  these  divine  abodes — 
Thy  power,  thy  wisdom  made  thee  king  of  gods!" 

Callimachus  excels  the  poets  before  his  day  by  ascribing 
the  gift  of  virtue  to  Jupiter : 

"  Oh !  from  thy  briglit  abodes  let  blessings  flow, 
Grant  healtli,  grant  virtue  to  mankind  below  ;  . 
For  he  with  healtii  is  not  completely  blest, 
And  virtue  fails  when  health  is  not  possest. 
Then  grant  us  both,  for  these  united  prove 
The  choicest  blessings  man  receives  from  Jove." 

His  hymn  to  Apollo  also  contains  one  passage  which 
reminds  us  of  the  scriptures : 

"  Depart,  ye  souls  profane !  hence,  hence  !  oli !  fly 
Far  from  this  holy  place  ;  Apollo's  nigh. 
Ye  bolts,  fly  back !   ye  brazen  doors,  expand  ! 
Leap  from  your  hinges!   Phoebus  is  at  hand. 
Begin,  young  men,  begin  tlie  sacred  song. 
Wake  all  your  lyres,  and  to  the  dances  throng, 


414:  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE    CLASSICS. 

Reinemb'ring  still  The  Power  is  seen  by  none 
Except  the  just  and  innocent  alone. 
Prepare  your  minds,  and  wash  your  spots  away 
That  hinder  men  to  view  the  all-piercing  ray." 

We  are  reminded  by  these  lines  of  the  words  of  David, 
"  Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates !  and  the  King  of  Glory 
shall  come  in ; "  and  of  his  resolve,  "  I  will  wash  my 
hands  in  innocency  ;  so  will  I  come  to  thine  altar  ;  "  and  of 
even  the  words  of  our  Lord  himself,  "  Blessed  are  the  pure 
in  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God." 

I  conclude  with  the  testimony  of  Callimachus  to  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul,  as  seen  in  the  following  epitaph : 

"  Beneath  this  tomb,  in  sacred  sleep, 
The  virtuous  Saon  lies, 
Ye  passengers,  forbear  to  weep— 
A  good  man  never  dies." 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

ON  THE  THEOLOGY  OF  ^SOHYLUS  AND  SOPHOCLES. 

For  the  following  cliapter  I  am  chiefly  indebted  to  Pro- 
fessor Tyler,  of  Amherst  College,  Massachusetts,  who  has 
kindly  consented  to  my  free  use  of  his  learned  and  valu- 
able article  as  published  in  the  Andover  Biblical  Reposi- 
tory. 

^-Eschylus  was  a  Greek  tragedian,  of  noble  family,  who 
was  born  about  the  year  525  before  Christ,  and  preceded 
Socrates  and  Plato  more  than  a  century.  He  was  a  fol- 
lower of  Pythagoras.  It  is  fabled  that  Bacchus  appeared 
to  him  while  watching  the  clusters  of  grapes  iu  a  vine- 
yard, and  bade  him  turn  his  attention  to  tragic  composi- 
tion. Under  w^hatever  influence  he  may  have  directed 
his  talents  to  the  composition  of  plays,  we  must  rejoice  in 
the  testimony  he  bears  to  the  remains  of  ancient  truth  in 
his  day. 

THE  GREEK  DRAMA. 

There  can  be  no  greater  misapprehension  of  the  Greek 
drama,  says  Professor  Tyler,  than  to  judge  of  it  by  the 
modern  theatre.  They  have  little  in  common  but  the 
name.  The  modern  drama  is  exhibited  within  doors,  at 
night,  and  by  gas  or  candle-light.  The  ancient  drama  was 
exhibited  by  day,  in  the  open  air,  and  with  the  broad, 
pure  light  of  heaven.  The  modern  theatre  is  a  common 
building,  and  capable,  at  most,  of  containing  only  two  or 


416  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE    CLASSICS. 

three  thousand  people.  The  Greek  theatre  counted  its 
audience  by  tens  of  thousands.  Tlie  modern  theatre  is  a 
private  specuhition,  and  for  the  most  part  filled  and  sus- 
tained by  the  worst  and  lowest  class  of  the  population. 
At  Athens  the  theatre  was  a  public  institution,  and  the 
audience  composed  of  the  enlightened,  refined,  and  sov- 
ereign people  of  Athens,  together  with  the  elite  of  all  the 
other  cities  of  Greece.  The  theatre,  as  it  now  exists  in 
the  cities  of  Europe  and  America,  is  generally,  if  not 
universally,  a  school  of  vice  and  crime.  In  its  palmy  days, 
in  the  Grecian  cities,  it  was  a  school  of  good  morals  and 
religion,  according  to  the  light  then  remaining,  and  taught 
by  the  wisest  and  best  men  of  those  times.  Greek  trag- 
edy grew  up  in  connection  with  their  religious  worship. 
The  theatre,  says  an  old  Roman  writer,  "  was  invented 
for  the  worship  of  the  gods  and  the  delight  of  men." 
Strange  as  it  may  sound  to  modern  ears,  the  Greek  stage 
came  nearer  than  anything  else  to  the  Greek  pulpit ; — the 
people  hung  on  the  lips  of  lofty,  grave  tragedians  for  in- 
struction touching  the  origin,  duty,  and  destiny  of  immor- 
tal beings.  It  was  the  express  office  of  the  chorus,  which 
held  the  most  prominent  place  in  the  ancient  drama,  to 
interpret  the  mysteries  of  Providence  ;  to  justify  the  ways 
of  God  to  men ;  to  plead  the  cause  of  truth,  virtue,  and 
piety.  Hence  it  was  usually  composed  of  aged  men, 
whose  wisdom  was  fitted  to  instruct  in  the  true  and  right, 
or  of  young  women,  whose  virgin  purity  would  instinct- 
ively shrink  fi'om  falsehood  and  wrong.  Greek  tragedy 
carried  men  back  to  the  origin  of  our  race,  up  to  the  prov- 
idence of  the  gods,  and  on  towards  the  retribution  of 
another  world. 

"With  few  exceptions,  the  subjects  are  mythological. 
The  characters  are  heroes  and  domi-gods — monsters,  it 
maybe,  in  crime,  but  their  punishment  is  equally  prodig 
ious,  and  sin  and  sufi'ering  always   go  together.     They 


^SCHYLUS  AND   SOPHOCLES.  417 

illustrate,  by  their  lips  and  by  tlieir  lives,  the  providence 
and  retributive  justice  of  God.  Nor  is  prayer  wanting 
in  their  liturgies  ;  for  so  were  they  called,  since  the  cho- 
ruses consist,  in  a  great  measure,  of  direct  addresses  to 
the  Deity,  ^schylus  is  preeminently  the  theological 
poet  of  Greece.  The  great  problems  which  lie  at  the 
foundation  of  faith  and  practice, — the  same  problems 
which  are  discussed  by  Job  and  his  three  friends, — are 
the  main  staj)les  of  nearly  all  his  tragedies.  In  this  re- 
spect the  sacred  tragedies  of  ^schylus  find  their  nearest 
counterpart  in  the  Book  of  Job.  On  the  whole,  there  is 
no  book  of  which  the  reader  of  -i^Eschylus  will  be  more  re- 
minded. The  poet  who  most  resembles  him  in  modern 
times,  is  the  Puritan  poet  of  old  England,  Milton.  The 
actors  in  the  plays  of  ^schylus  handle  the  grand  themes  of 
theology  very  much  as  they  are  handled  by  the  good  and 
evil  angels  in  "  Paradise  Lost.  "  Such  is  a  true,  but  most 
unworthy  abridgement  of  Professor  Tyler's  five  most  in- 
teresting opening  pages. 

Before  giving  a  brief  analysis  of  the  theology  of  ^schy- 
lus,  we  will  only  add  that  he  supports  the  proposition 
for  which  we  have  contended  throughout  the  preceding 
chapters,  viz.,  that  the  more  nearly  tradition  reached  the 
beginning,  the  more  of  truth  is  in  it.  yEschylus,  in  his 
plays,  acts  on  Plato's  doctrine,  who,  in  reference  to  the 
gods,  said,  "The  subject  is  too  great  for  us,  for  we  must 
believe  those  who  have  spoken  aforetime,  who  being,  as 
they  said,  the  offspring  of  the  gods,  doubtless  knew  their 
own  sires,  and  must  not  be  disbelieved  when  they  tell  us, 
as  it  were,  things  pertaining  to  their  own  household.  " 

Who  can  Plato  and  ^schylus  refer  to  as  the  gods,  but 
mere  deified  heroes — mariners  of  the  ark,  whose  descend- 
ants were  regarded  as  the  offspring  of  the  gods,  and  who 
handed  down  the  earliest  traditions  to  the  world  ?  ^schy- 
lus  agrees  with  Ilesiod  and  other  poets,  that,  under  the 
27 


418  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

reign  of  Saturn,  the  golden  age  of  the  world,  a  better  race 
inhabited  the  earth,  who  were  the  companions  of  the  gods 
and  the  favorites  of  heaven  ;  but  that  a  great  change  took 
place,  which  provoked  the  anger  of  Jupiter  and  brought 
his  judgments  upon  them.  These  things  soon  became  per- 
verted, and  turned  into  fables  and  myths  ;  but,  as  Profes- 
sor Tyler  well  remarks,  many  of  the  heathen  fables  are 
doubtless  the  facts  of  revelation  and  primitive  history  in 
disguise.  Even  those  myths  which  narrate  the  inter- 
course between  gods  and  men,  carnal  and  corrupt  though 
they  be,  preserve  while  they  pervert  the  memory  of 
that  intimate  converse  which  God  held  with  the  patri- 
archs and  first  parents  of  our  race.  "  May  they  not  also," 
he  says,  "  be  regarded,  like  the  Avaturs  of  the  Hindoos,  as 
fleshly  anticipations  and  unconscious  prophecies  of  Chris- 
tian truths  ?  " 


^SCHYLUS  ON  THE  NATURE  OF  GOD  AND  THE  GODS. 

Like  all  other  pagan  writers,  he  is  inconsistent,  contra- 
dictory, and  confused,  as  to  the  one  only  true  God.  In 
his  tragedies,  Jupiter  is  generally  represented  so  as  to  ac- 
cord with  our  ideas  of  the  true  God  and  Father  of  all,  as 
set  forth  in  scripture.  He  calls  him  "  the  Father  of  gods 
and  men  ;  "  "  the  universal  cause ;  "  "  the  all-seer  and  all- 
doer  ;  "  "just  and  true ;  "  "  king  of  kings  ; "  "  of  the  happy 
most  happy  ;  "  "of  the  perfect,  most  perfect  power ;  " 
"  The  blessed  Zeus.  "  He  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  a 
"jealous  God,  visiting  the  iniquities  of  the  fathers  upon  the 
children ; "  one  "  who  will  by  no  means  clear  the  guil- 
ty ;"  one  whose  mysterious  providence  is  an  unfathom- 
able abyss.  In  the  play  of  Agamemnon,  he  is  like  Moses  ; 
he  hesitates  by  what  name  to  invoke  the  invincible  Dei- 
ty. He  was  in  truth  an  unknown  God  to  him,  as  to  the 
Athenians  in  the  time  of  St.  Paul.     Sometimes  he  is  the 


^SCHYLUS   AND   SOPHOCLES.  419 

invincible  deity  of  pantheism.  lie  is  always  high  above 
the  rest  of  the  drama.  Apollo  and  Athena  are  mere  per- 
sonages in  the  drama,  bnt  Jupiter  never.  They,  as  in 
more  ancient  times  in  which  the  scenes  were  laid,  walk 
the  earth  in  human  forms,  and  take  part  in  the  aifairs  of 
men ;  but  he,  never.  As  Miiller,  the  German  mytholo- 
gist,  says,  "  Jupiter  is  the  only  real  God,  in  the  true  sense 
of  the  word — the  spirit  that  pervades  and  governs  all 
things."  And  yet,  like  Homer  and  others,  how  often  does 
he  degrade  Jupiter  to  a  frail  being,  by  imputing  crimes 
and  follies  to  him  ?  He  also  recognizes  a  number  of  infe- 
rior deities,  subordinate  to  the  supreme  authority  of  Jupi- 
ter, and  who  are  the  messengers  of  his  will  and  the  active 
agents  of  his  providence.  As  it  is  not  good  for  either  god 
or  man  to  be  alone,  so  Jupiter  must  have  his  wife  and 
children ;  and  these  children  must,  in  their  turn,  have 
others.  Each  generation  being  removed  more  and  more 
from  the  perfection  of  their  first  fathers,  these  became 
inferior  deities,  whom  he  employs  to  manage  the  earth, 
differing  in  character,  and  being  gods  of  the  sea  and  land, 
the  Furies,  the  Muses,  the  Fates,  etc. 

Tliere  is  also  a  class  of  gods  who  are  hostile  to  Jupiter, 
and  who  are  overthrown  in  battle  by  him.  Atlas  and 
Typhon,  with  the  Titans,  feel  his  avenging  j)ower  in 
Hades  and  Tartarus.  Kor  can  we  read  of  them  without 
being  reminded  of  those  giants  and  mighty  men,  of  whom 
Moses  speaks  as  so  incurring  the  displeasure  of  God  be- 
fore the  flood,  and  bringing  destruction  upon  the  world, 
and  of  those  to  whom  St.  Jude  and  St.  Peter  refer,  saying, 
"  God  spared  not  the  angels  that  sinned,  but  cast  them 
down  to  hell,  or  Tartarus,  holding  them  bound  in  ever- 
lasting chains." 


420  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 


JUPITER    AS    BOUND   BY   FATE. 

Althongli  Jupiter  is  sometimes  said  to  be  superior  to 
fate,  yet,  as  in  Homer  and  others,  lie  is  identical  with 
fate,  and  everything  is  made  subject  to  irreversible  des- 
tiny ;  and  yet  this  is,  in  some  sense,  connected  with  and 
influenced  by  prayer.    Thus,  in  one  of  the  plays  it  is  said, 

"  That  which  is  fated  may  come  to  your  praying." 

Professor  Tyler  justly  remarks,  "  ISTo  Calvinist  was  ever  a 
more  strenuous  asserter  of  the  doctrine  of  decrees  than 
the  chorus  in  these  dramas ; "  "at  the  same  time,  no 
Methodist  ever  offered  up  more  frequent  or  more  fervent 
prayers."  When  Thebes  is  defended,  "  the  people  must 
pray  indeed,  but  look  well  to  the  fortification,"  Or,  in  the 
language  of  Cromwell  to  his  Ironsides,  "  Trust  Providence, 
but  keep  your  powder  dry." 


^SCHYLUS    OiSr   JUPITER  S    RETRIBUTIVE   JUSTICE. 

Our  Lord  says,  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said 
by  them  of  old  time,  '  An  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for 
a  tooth,' "  "  We  have  this  ancient  sajdng,"  says  Pro- 
fessor Tyler,  "  standing  out  with  great  prominence,  and 
repeated  again  and  again  on  the  pages  of  ^schylus  :  " 

"  'Tis  robber  robbed  and  slayer  slain  ;  for  though 

Ofttimes  it  lags  with  measured  blow  for  blow," 

yet 

"  Vengeance  prevaileth, 

While  great  Jove  liveth." 


Again,— 


"  Blood  for  blood,  and  blow  for  blow, 
Thou  shalt  reap  as  thou  didst  sow. 
Age  to  age  with  hoary  wisdom 
Speaketh  this  to  man." 


^SCHYLUS   AND   SOPHOCLES.  421 

•Who  can  read  these  words  witliout  remembering  tlic 
universal  law  proclaimed  after  the  flood  ?  "  Whoso  shcd- 
deth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood  be  shed  ; "  or 
these  words  of  our  Lord,  "  Whoso  taketli  the  sword,  shall 
perish  bj  the  sword." 


THE    DELAY    OF   THE    DEITY    IN    PUNISHING    THE    WICKED. 

This  is  often  dwelt  npon  by^schjlus.  Other  moralists 
of  Greece  often  quoted  an  old  proverb,  "  The  mills  of  the 
gods  grind  late,  but  grind  to  powder."  ^schylus  has  a 
striking  passage  on  that  subject:  "Some  are  punished  in 
the  light  of  day  ;  others  in  the  dark  twilight  of  life,  with  a 
lingering  and  overflowing  flood  of  pains  ;  while  for  otliers 
is  reserved  the  endless  night  of  future  retribution."  How 
like  is  this  to  St.  Paul's  teaching,  "  Some  men's  sins  are 
open  beforehand,  going  before  to  judgment,  and  some  they 
follow  after." 

THE    DOCTEINE    OF   A    FUTURE    STATE    OF   EEWAEDS    AND 
PUNISHMENTS. 

This  is  taken  for  granted  throughout  the  works  of  JSs- 
chylus  ;  and  much  is  said  about  the  condition  of  the  dead, 
especially  of  the  wicked.  On  this  subject  he  is  most  ter- 
rific ;  but  as  to  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  he  knows 
nothing. 

I  conclude  with  a  few  striking  passages  from  Professor 
Tyler's  able  article. 

"The  same  subjects  which  constitute  the  staple  of  the 
epic  and  tragic  mythology  of  the  Greeks  are  among  the 
earliest  and  most  prominent  subjects  of  Mosaic  liistory  and 
legislation." 

After  reciting  passages  from  the  Eumenides,  one  of  the 
tragedies  which  set  forth  the  most  important  truths  bear- 


422  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS, 

JEg  a  strong  resemblance  to  some  of  the  facts  and  doc- 
trines of  our  holy  religion,  he  says,  "  The  ideas  are  found- 
ed deep  in  the  religious  nature  of  man  ;  they  set  forth  the 
theology  of  J^schylus,  and  the  better  part  of  his  contem- 
poraries ;  and  it  must  be  confessed  that  his  theology  is 
surprisingly  healthy,  sound,  and  truthful,  in  its  essential 
elements.  The  great  doctrine  of  hereditary  depravity, 
retribution,  and  atonement  are  there  in  their  elements,  as 
palpably  as  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  Would  that  modern 
poetry  were  equally  true  to  the  soul  of  man,  the  law  of 
God,  and  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

He  then  proceeds  to  speak  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
atonement  is  set  forth,  in  the  part  in  which  Apollo  and 
Zeus,  Soter,  or  Jupiter,  the  Saviour,  are  made  to  take  in 
the  reconciliation,  which  forms  the  great  theme  of  the 
tragedy.  He  thus  concludes  :  "  There  certainly  are,  in 
the  poets  and  philosophers  of  ancient  times,  not  a  little 
of  truth  and  of  resemblance  to  the  great  central  facts  of 
Christianity." 

THE  THEOLOGY  OF  SOPHOCLES. 

In  this  part  of  the  chapter  I  use  again  the  labors  of 
Professor  Tyler  in  his  two  learned  articles  on  the  theology 
of  Sophocles.  Sophocles,  according  to  Professor  Anthon's 
article,  in  his  edition  of  "  Lempriere's  Classical  Diction- 
ary," was  born  about  thirty  years  after  JEschylus,  and 
fifteen  before  Euripides.  A  statue  of  him  has  been  dis- 
covered within  the  last  twenty-five  years,  and  is  now  in 
the  museum  of  the  Vatican,  at  Pome,  which  represents 
him,  as  to  body,  to  be  the  perfection  of  beauty  and  sym- 
metry. In  character  he  was  most  amiable,  and  said  to  be 
the  favorite  of  men  and  gods.  At  the  age  of  twenty-five 
he  bore  ofi"  the  prize  from  all  the  competitors,  among 
whon^  was  the  veteran  ^schylus,  who  had  been  for  thirty 


^SCHYLUS  AND   SOPHOCLES.  423 

years  the  master  of  the  Athenian  stage.  Twenty  times 
did  Sopliocles  bear  off  the  first  prize.  He  came  on  the 
theatre  of  life  in  time  to  celebrate  the  triumphs  of  Greece 
over  the  wealth  and  power  of  Persia,  and  left  it  only  a 
little  while  before  Athens  yielded  to  Sparta  in  that  strife 
in  which  the  Grecian  states  were  so  exhausted  as  to  pre- 
pare them  for  the  Macedonian  yoke.  Sophocles  dwelt  in 
the  golden  age  of  Athenian  government,  literature,  and 
religion.  His  theology  was  not  so  strongly  marked  in  its 
character,  and  had  not  so  much  of  primeval  tradition  as 
that  of  JEschylus,  but  probably  presented  a  fairer  repre- 
sentation of  the  average  sentiments  of  the  Athenians  in  his 
day.  Only  seven  out  of  one  hundred  of  his  tragedies  have 
come  down  to  our  day,  but  these  are  probably  among  the 
best. .  We  will  select  some  passages  from  them,  showing 
the  prevailing  views  as  to  religion  and  morals. 

It  seems,  says  Professor  Tyler,  as  if,  when  they  (the 
Greeks)  advanced  in  time  and  progressed  in  the  cultiva- 
tion of  literature  and  art,  they  receded  from  the  fountain 
of  moral  and  religious  truth,  and  the  ideas  of  primeval 
revelation  lost  their  vital  power.  In  Sophocles  more  than 
in  ^schylus  there  is  room  for  the  feeling,  in  some  passa- 
ges at  least,  that  the  gods  are  powers  or  personifications 
rather  than  persons.  Still  there  are  passages  in  which 
God  appears  with  some  distinctness.  In  one  of  the  dramas 
Jupiter  is  called  "  The  all-controlling  Jove  ;"  and  again, 

"  Thou  of  the  all-pervading  eye, 
In  heaven  and  by  subject  gods  adored." 

In  another  he  is  called  "  Jove  all-beholding,  all-direct- 
ing." 

The  eternal  and  unchano-ino:  character  of  divine  law  is 
also  sometimes  set  forth  in  such  a  manner  as  to  remind 
us  of  the  law  of  God  written  on  the  hearts  of  men : 
"  Heaven's  eternal  laws  would' st  thou  contemn  ?" 


424:  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

is  the  language  of  upbraiding  in  regard  to  one  who  would 
violate  right. 

We  read  of  one  of  whom  it  was  said, 

"  In  every  law  divine, 
Which  blooms  with  holiest  awe  above, 

A  steadfast  piety  was  thine, — 
The  love  of  honor  and  the  fear  of  Jove." 

Again, — 

"  To  contravene  the  firm,  unwritten  laws 
Of  the  just  gods,  thyself  a  weak,  frail  mortal ! 
These  are  no  laws  of  yesterday :  they  live 
For  ever  more,  and  none  can  trace  their  birth." 

The  supremacy  of  the  divine  over  human  laws  is  thus 
declared,  in  relation  to  one  who  plead  the  laws  of  the 
state  in  justification  of  an  act  in  violation  of  divine  law  : 

"  Dost  thou  revere  them. 
When  thou  would'st  trample  on  the  laws  of  heaven  ?" 


PIETY   TO    THE    GODS. 

Piety,  such  as  it  was,  is  often  strongly  commended  : 

"  Revere  the  gods ! 
Second  to  this  all  else  great  Jove  esteems. 
True  piety  alone  defies  the  grave : 
Let  mortals  live,  or  die,  this  blooms  forever." 

In  his  drama  of  Ajax,  the  father,  at  parting  with  him, 
upon  setting  out  for  Troy,  says  : 

"  Seek,  my  son,  in  fight 
To  conquer,  but  still  conquer  through  the  gods." 

To  which  the  impious  son  replies  : 

"  I  confide 
To  win  such  trophies  e'en  without  the  gods." 


^SCHYLUS  AND   SOPHOCLES.  425 

Even  the  plons  sometimes  utter  sentiments  showing 
their  want  of  contidence  in  the  gods. 

"  Yet  wherefore  do  I  turn  me  to  the  gods  ? 
If  acts  like  these  are  sanctioned  by  the  gods, 
I  will  address  me  to  my  doom  in  silence." 

Another  is  made  thus  to  speak  of  the  infernal  gods  : 

"  'Tis  a  bootless  task 
To  render  homage  to  the  powers  of  hell." 

There  are  some  passages  which,  though  they  savor 
somewhat  of  pagan  pride  and  human  glory,  yet  have 
also  something  of  what  scripture  calls  "  a  conscience  void 
of  offence,"  or  the  "  mens  conscia  recti"  of  Horace.  The 
doctrine  of  expediency  rather  than  of  justice  is  strongly 
set  forth  in  the  following  lines  : 

"  Yet  know,  0  prince,  I  deem  it  nobler  far 
To  fail  with  honor,  then  succeed  by  baseness." 

Again, — 

"  All  must  be  ill 
When  man  the  bias  of  his  soul  forsakes, 
And  does  a  deed  unseemly." 

Again, — 

"  To  live  with  glory,  or  with  glory  die, 
Befits  the  noble." 

Again, — 

"  Conscious  of  right. 
The  soul  may  proudly  soar." 

The  providence  of  God,  in  its  retributive  justice,  is 
often  set  forth  in  the  dramas  of  Sophocles  : 

"  If  Themis  reigns  on  high, 
And  Jove's  blue  lightnings  rend  the  sky, 
E're  long  shall  vengeance  crush  the  guilty  pair." 
Again, — 

"  But  when  a  house  is  struck  by  angry  fate. 
Through  all  its  line  what  ceaseless  miseries  flow." 


426  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

The  respect  paid  to  the  dead,  and  the  care  with  which 
their  bodies  were  interred,  or  their  ashes  preserved  ;  the 
dread  on  the  part  of  the  dying  lest  they  should  be  left 
iinburied, — all  point  to  the  general  belief  of  some  kind  of 
resurrection.     The  dramas  are  full  of  these  things. 

So  also  as  to  sacrifices.  The  expiatory  character  of 
them  runs  through  all  the  ancient  dramas.  "Reason  about 
the  justice  of  it  as  we  may,"  says  Professor  Tyler,  '•  men 
have  never  been  able  to  get  rid  of  the  idea  of  expiatory 
and  vicarious  sacrifice.  In  one  form  or  other  it  pervades 
or  underlies  all  religion,  be  it  pagan,  Mohammedan,  Jew- 
ish, or  Christian."  But  he  justly  concludes  that  "  Holiness 
and  sin  are  new  ideas,  almost  new  words  as  used  in  the 
Bible.  The  Bible  convicts  every  man  of  personal  sinful- 
ness in  the  sight  of  an  holy  God.  The  Jew  and  the 
Christian  alone  Avorship  a  God  of  holiness."  "  Glorious 
in  holiness,"  is  an  idea  which  yon  cannot  get  "  from  all  the 
poetry  and  philosophy  of  the  sages." 

SOME  EEMARKS  ON  THE  EUMENIDES  OF  ^SCHYLUS. 

The  learned  C.  O.  Miiller,  of  Germany,  has  written  a 
critical  treatise  on  this  drama,  from  which  we  quote  some 
passages  and  draw  some  remarks  which  will  be  a  fitting 
close  of  this  chapter. 

In  further  proof  of  the  comparative  purity  and  religious 
character  of  the  stage  in  the  early  times  of  Greece,  as  set 
forth  in  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  it  deserves  to  be 
mentioned  that  not  only  must  ^schylus  himself  train  the 
members  of  the  chorus  for  acting  their  part  in  the  drama, 
but  he  must  apply  to  the  chief  archon  to  appoint  them. 
They  are  supposed  to  have  been  from  twelve  to  fifteen  for 
each  play, — respectable  men,  matrons,  and  virgins.  The 
place  in  which  this  was  acted  was  either  the  temple  of 
Minerva,  or  the  precincts  of  it  on  the  Acropolis  of  Athens. 
During  the  service,  the  very  Adytum,  or  Omphalos,  or 


^SCHYLUS  AND   SOPHOCLES.  427 

Holy  of  Holies  is  displayed,  and  Orestes  the  parricide  is 
seen,  covered  with  blood,  in  that  sacred  place.  In  this, 
as  in  other  tragedies  of  JEschylus,  the  mythic  or  ancient 
is  mingled  with  the  political  or  present  history  of  Athens. 
Shakspeare  has  copied  somewhat  after  this  model  in 
his  historical  plays.  The  theatre,  in  the  time  of  uEschy- 
lus,  was,  in  a  measure,  a  political  arena,  on  which  great 
questions  of  state  were  discussed  by  the  help  of  the 
ancient  myths.  At  a  late  period,  Demosthenes,  Pericles, 
and  others,  by  their  oratory  in  the  great  assemblies  of  the 
people,  swaj'ed  the  multitude  at  pleasure,  the  Areopagus 
having  become  comparatively  powerless.  The  Areopagus 
was  present  at  the  exhibition  ol  the  tragedies  of  -^schy- 
lus,  and  acted  as  judge,  -i^^schylus  was  the  great  defender 
of  the  declining  rights  and  powers  of  the  Areopagus,  and 
would  be  regarded  as  an  aristocrat  in  our  times.  De- 
mocracy was  gaining  ground.  Any  citizen  might  become 
an  archon,  and  any  archon  an  areopagite,  which  was  not 
so  in  former  days,  ^schylus  w^as  the  friend  of  Aristides, 
and  took  part  with  him  against  Themistocles,  who  was 
the  man  of  the  people.  He  warned  the  people  against 
the  abuse  of  their  power,  and  against  a  warlike  and  am- 
bitious spirit  toward  the  other  states  of  Greece. 

The  basis  of  this  tragedy  was  the  murder  of  Clytemnes- 
tra  by  her  son  Orestes.  His  mother  had  married  Aga- 
memnon, king  of  Argos.  On  leaving  for  the  Trojan  war, 
he  committed  the  care  of  his  wife  and  family  to  CEgys- 
thus,  a  relative.  During  the  war,  Q]gysthus  maiTied  Cly- 
temnestra,  and  they  united  in  murdering  Agamemnon  on 
his  return.  Orestes  flies  to  some  other  state,  but  after  an 
exile  of  seven  years  returns  with  his  friend  Pylades  to 
Myceme,  and  kills  both  his  mother  and  (Egysthus.  He  is, 
however,  tormented  by  the  furies  or  avenging  goddesses, 
though  patronized  by  Apollo.  Being  tried,  according  to 
the  play,  before  the  Areopagus, — the  high  court  of  Athens, 


428  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

— he  is  acquitted  by  the  decision  of  Minerva,  Avho  either 
gives  the  casting  vote  in  his  favor, — the  judges  being 
equally  divided, — or  else,  one  vote  being  wanted  to  make 
them  equal,  she  effects  a  tie  by  her  vote,  and  thus  determin- 
ed the  principle  which  is  to  this  day  acted  upon,  that  where 
the  judges  are  equally  divided  the  accused  is  acquitted. 
But  the  use  I  would  make  of  this  tragedy,  (according  to 
the  plan  of  my  book,)  is  to  show  the  resemblance  between 
the  story,  and  the  doctrine  and  general  usage  of  the  pagan 
world,  in  relation  to  manslaughter  and  murder,  and  what 
we  find  in  the  Saci'ed  Scriptures.  The  first  murder  men- 
tioned in  scripture  is  that  of  Abel  by  Cain.  The  punish- 
ment inflicted  is  banishment  from  the  country  where  the 
deed  was  done,  and  perpetual  wandering  over  the  earth, 
with  the  dread  of  death  from  all  whom  he  might  meet. 
The  next  mention  made  of  this  crime  and  its  punishment 
is  immediately  after  the  flood,  when  to  the  renewed  race 
of  men  this  universal  law  with  its  penalty  is  ordained : 
"Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood  be 
shed ;  for  in  the  image  of  God  made  he  man."  Who 
should  be  the  executor  of  this  divine  vengeance,  whether 
the  civil  magistrate,  or  some  relative  or  relatives  of  the  de- 
ceased, is  not  mentioned.  The  simple  decree  is  uttered, 
with  a  most  impressive  reason  for  its  execution,  viz  :  "  For 
in  the  image  of  God  made  he  man,"  But  after  the  re- 
newal of  the  prohibition  of  murder,  from  Mount  Sinai,  in 
these  solemn  words,  "  Thou  shalt  not  kill,"  or  "  Thou 
shalt  do  no  murder,"  the  mode  and  instrument  of  the  exe- 
cution of  the  penalty  is  minutely  detailed.  In  the  midst  of 
wrath,  from  the  insult  offered  to  the  divine  majest}^  in  the 
destruction  of  one  made  in  his  own  image,  God  remem- 
bers mercy  in  behalf  of  tliose  who  have  shed  man's  blood 
accidentally,  or  without  deliberate  intent  so  to  do.  They 
must  be,  indeed,  to  some  extent  wanderers,  like  the  first 
man-slayer  ;  they  must  flee  from  the  place  where  the  deed 


-^SCHYLUS  AND  SOPHOCLES.  429 

was  done,  and  from  the  presence  of  the  aggrieved  relative ; 
but  cities  of  refuge  were  prepared  for  them,  whither  they 
might  flee  until  the  character  of  the  act  was  examined, 
and  the  grief  of  tlie  bereaved  was  calmed.  But  for  the 
wilful  murderer  there  was  no  mercy.  He  might  be  seized, 
even  tliough  holding  by  the  horns  of  God's  altar,  and  put 
to  death.  The  divine  legislator  of  Israel  has  here  given  a 
law  and  set  an  example  to  men,  which,  however  con- 
demned by  some  of  the  wise  of  this  world,  and  neglected 
by  legislators  and  magistrates,  we  doubt  not  is  the  most 
effectual  that  can  be  devised  for  the  preservation  of  human 
life.  The  failure  to  inflict  the  penalty  of  death  on  wilful 
murderers  has  been  the  occasion  of  the  deaths  of  tliousands 
of  the  best  citizens  of  earth.  Such  are  the  tender  mercies 
of  man,  when  he  would  be  more  merciful  than  God. 

Let  us  now  see  how  far  this  law  and  will  of  God,  whether 
coming  down  from  our  antediluvian  or  postdiluvian  fore- 
fathers througli  different  branches  of  the  Noachian  family, 
or  borrowed  from  the  Hebrews,  God's  chosen  ])eople,  is 
sustained  by  the  practice  and  laws  of  ancient  Greece, 
as  set  forth  in  this  tragedy  of  ^schylus,  and  elsewhere.  In 
the  states  of  Greece  as  in  Judea,  though  the  wilful  mur- 
derer has  no  provision  of  mercy  made  for  him,  yet  the 
man-slayer  has.  He  may  fly  the  countiy,  and  wander 
about  from  place  to  place,  seeking  to  be  allowed  some 
expiatory  rites  by  some  friendly  king  whereby  he  may  be 
restored  to  his  country.  Sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  Her- 
cules, he  may  appease  the  Erinnys  or  ghost  of  the  deceased, 
by  selling  himself  into  servitude  ;  sometimes  by  the  sacri- 
fice of  animals.  "  Blood  for  blood  was  the  law,"  unless 
the  slain,  on  his  death-bed,  pronounced  forgiveness.  The 
nearest  relatives  of  the  slain  were  the  avengers.  xVt  the 
burial  a  spear  was  stuck  up  in  the  grave,  to  be  plucked 
up  and  borne  away  by  the  rightful  avenger.  Sometimes 
the  proper  avenger  would  petition  the  government  to  un- 


430  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

dertake  the  work  of  vengeance,  and  thus  be  relieved.  Un- 
til or  unless  some  one  of  these  things  was  done,  the  man- 
slayer  was  prohibited  entrance  into  any  of  the  temples  of 
religion,  or  participation  in  any  sacrifices,  or  to  come  into 
the  town-hall,  but  was  an  object  of  commiseration.  So  dear 
was  the  life  of  man  to  the  gods,  according  to  the  pagan 
system ;  though  it  was  not  because  he  was  made  after  the 
image  of  God,  as  the  scriptures  declare,  but  because,  ac- 
cording to  their  philosophy,  he  was  a  part  of  God, — a  part 
of  one  universal  life,  of  which  the  great  cause  was  the 
head  ;  and  to  murder  a  man  was  to  assault  the  Deit3^  This 
was  their  perversion  of  the  true  history  of  man's  creation. 
There  was  something  peculiar  in  the  case  of  Orestes,  M'hich 
caused  the  judges  to  hesitate  and  divide.  Though  he  was  the 
rightful  avenger  of  his  father's  death,  yet  a  parricide  could 
not  be  forgiven,  and  he  had  murdered  his  mother  and  her 
wicked  accomplice.  On  this  account  he  was  tortured  by 
the  Erinnyses,  or  Furies,  and  fled  from  his  kingdom  and 
became  a  wanderer,  like  Cain  and  the  man-slaying  fugi- 
tives of  Israel. 

I  And  who  were  these  Erinnyses,  or  Furies,  or,  as  after- 
wards called,  Euraenides?  The  name  comes,  we  are  told, 
from  a  word  which  signifies  "  The  deep  offence  and  bitter 
displeasure"  of  those  who  have  a  right  to  be  angry,  as  of 
parents  slain  by  their  children.  The  ghosts  of  murdered 
parents  were  considered  the  most  terrific  and  tormenting 
of  all  the  Furies.  At  length  some  of  these  became  regular 
deities,  with  the  name  of  Eumenides.  These  deities  were 
introduced  upon  the  stage  in  the  tragedies,  and  were  most 
fearful  objects. 

Although  even  the  unintentional  man-slayer, — of  whose 
weapon  it  might  be  said,  according  to  Cicero,  "  Majis 
fugit  quam  jacit" — rather  flew  from  the  hand,  than  was 
thrown, — was  still  obliged  to  fly,  yet  we  find  a  diflPerence 
made  between  the  guilt  of  those  who  committed  murder 


JESCHYLUS  AND   SOPHOCLES.  431 

under  some  sudden  impulse,  and  those  who  did  it  "  of 
malice  aforethought."  The  former  was  ascribed  to  Ate, 
the  goddess  of  hate,  Avho  confounded  the  mind  and  de- 
stroyed reason  for  a  time  ;  hence  the  goddess  Ate  "  has  in 
her  train  the  litte,  or  humble  prayers  of  penitence,  which 
must  make  good  before  gods  and  men  whatever  has  been 
done  amiss." 

I  conclude,  in  a  few  words,  with  the  opinion  of  Miiller, 
as  to  Jupiter  Soter  :  "The  conception  and  worship  of  him 
were  widely  diifused  through  Greece."  "  Among  the  con- 
vivial customs  of  the  Greeks,  nothing  is  more  familiar  than 
their  three  solemn  draughts  after  meals.  The  first  is  con- 
secrated to  Olympian  Jove  ;  the  second  to  the  earth  and 
heroes;  the  third  to  Jupiter  Soter."  He  is  called  "the 
lord  of  both  worlds,"  and  "  the  good  deity,"  reconciling 
differences.  Mr.  M.  considers  him  as  "  interposing  in  the 
character  of  a  consummating  Saviour  God."  Such  is  the 
opinion  of  many  other  learned  men,  who  consider  that  the 
idea  of  a  Jupiter  Soter  grew  out  of  the  ancient  tradition 
and  expectation  of  some  divine  Deliverer  or  Peace-maker. 


CHAPTER   XXXI. 

ON    OVId's    METAMOEPHOSES,    and   liber   TKISTItrM. — 
PART   FIEST. 

There  was  something  so  peculiar  and  touching  in  the 
character  and  fate  of  Ovid,  that  more  than  usual  mention 
of  him  will  be  excused.  HcyWas  born  911  years  after  the 
building  of  Rome,  and  lived  until  between  forty  and  fifty 
years  before  the  birth  of  Clirist,  He  was  an  Epicurean  in 
principle,  and  being  among  the  few  poets  who  possessed 
the  means  of  voluptuous  living,  made  good  use  of  it  in 
the  court  of  Augustus  Ciesar,  with  whom  he  was  a  great 
favorite  for  many  years.  Coming  under  the  displeasure 
of  the  emperor  for  some  cause  about  which  there  is  a 
diversity  of  opinion  among  his  annotators,  lie  was  ban- 
ished to  Pontus,  in  Scythia,  then  a  most  barbarous  coun- 
try. Of  it  he  says,  "Nobis  habitabitur  orbis  ultimus. 
A  terra,  terra  remota  mea."  Of  its  inhabitants  he  gives 
this  fearful  picture :  "  Yox  fera,  trux  vultus,  verissima 
martis  imago."  So  wretched  was  his  life  while  there, 
that  he  says,  "Mors  mihi  munus  erit"— "  Death  will  be 
a  favor  to  me."  While  in  this  place  of  exile  he  wrote  his 
"  Tristium,"  consisting  of  letters  to  his  old  friends  at  Rome. 
In  these  we  have  the  only  intimations  from  himself  of  the 
cause  of  his  banishment.  Some  have  alleged  that  an  ac- 
cidental discovery  of  some  secret  or  secrets  in  the  family 
of  Augustus,  most  discreditable  to  it,  was  the  real  cause 
of  his  disgrace  and  exile.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  such  was 
not  the  case.    If  it  were  so,  a  more  effectual  method  could 


ON  ovid's  metamorphoses.  433 

not  have  been  adopted  for  spreading  abroad  the  shame  of 
Augustus,  and  of  transmitting  it  to  posterity,  than  so 
heavy  a  judgment  on  so  favorite  a  poet.  We  would 
rather  hope  that  public  opinion  and  the  private  judgment 
of  the  emperor  condemned  those  works  of  Ovid  which 
were  calculated  to  promote  the  licentiousness  of  Rome, 
and  which  were  chiefly  embodied  in  his  work  entitled, 
"  De  Arte  Amandi,"  or  "  The  Art  of  Love,"  and  to  which 
the  displeasure  of  Augustus  was  ascribed. 

Although  there  are  hints  in  his  writings  that  there  may 
have  been  some  other  cause,  either  in  whole  or  in  part,  yet 
to  this,  whether  I'rom  fear  of  some  worse  punishment,  or 
from  regard  to  truth,  he  seems  to  ascribe  all  his  woes, 
though  he  thinks  his  judgment  a  heavy  one.  If  he  was 
really  banished  as  the  corrupter  of  the  age,  then  it  shows 
a  strange  inconsistency  between  the  improving  sense  of 
morality  at  that  day  under  the  teaching  of  Cicero,  Epic- 
tetus,  and  others,  and  the  continued  religious  worship  of 
Rome,  in  which,  Ovid  declares,  worse  things  were  to  be 
seen  than  in  his  book. 

The  very  inscription  on  his  tomb,  however,  seems  to 
settle  the  question:  "  Qui  jacet  hie,  teneri  doctor  amoris 
erat."  The  same  is  also  shown  in  the  following  lines  of 
Angelus  Politianus,  in  his  "  Elegia  de  exilio  et  morte 
Ovidii : " 

"  Et  jacet  Euxinis  vates  Romanus  in  oris, 

Romanum  vatem  barbara  terra  tegit 

Terra  tegit  vatem  teneros  qui  lusit  amores, 

Barbara  quam  gelidis  alluit  Ister  aquis. 

NuUus  erat.     Procul  ah  conjux,  parvi  que  nepotes, 

Nee  fuerat  profugum  nata  secuta  patrem. 

Extinct  um  et  montes  flebebant  et  sylvae  feroeque, 

Et  iBesse  in  mediis  dicitur  Ister  aquis." 

But  his  own  words  establish  the  fact,  that  his  book  was 
the  alleged  cause  of  his  banishment.     On  sending  his 
letters  from  Pontus,  to  be  published  at  Rome,  he  says, 
28 


434  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

"  Vade  sed  incultus,  qualem  decet  exulis  esse, 
Inspice,  die,  titulum.     Non  sum  preceptor  amoris 
Quas  meruit  pcenas,  jam  dedit  illud  opus." 

But  tliongli  here  he  seems  to  acknowledge  that  he  de- 
served punishment  for  it,  yet  he  repeatedly  professes  in- 
nocence of  intention : 

"  Si  me  meus  abstulit  error 
Stultaque  mens  nobis,  non  scelerata  fuit." 

And  again, — 

"  Conscius  in  culpa  non  scelus  esse  sua." 

He  declares,  also,  that  he  did  not  practise  the  things  con- 
demned in  his  book : 

"  Crede  mihi,  mores  distant  a  carmine, 
Vita  verecunda  est;  musajocosa  mihi." 

Moreover,  he  declares  that  he  only  set  forth  in  his  verses 
the  things  which  were  exhibited  in  the  public  places  and 
in  the  temples  at  Rome : 

"  Ludi  quoque  semina  proebent 
Nequitiae.     Tolli  tota  theatra  jube 
ToUatur  circus.     Non  tuta  licentia  circi. 
Quis  locus  est  templis  augustior  ?  hoec  quoque  vitet." 

He  then  proceeds  to  enumerate  some  of  the  licentious 
scenes  exhibited  in  the  very  temples,  being  painted  or  en- 
graved on  the  walls,  and  over  the  gates  or  doors.  It  was 
doubtless  somewhat  in  the  ancient  as  in  the  present  world, 
that  some  things  were  tolerated  in  public  which  would  not 
be  endured  in  private.  Some  things  were  heard  and  seen 
at  theatres  and  circuses  which  must  not  be  heard  or  looked 
on  elsewhere. 

At  such  a  time  and  in  such  a  place,  it  may  be  difficult 
to  decide  on  the  amount  of  guilt  belonging  to  the  author 


ON  ovid's  metamorphoses.  435 

of  a  book  that  could  adduce  sucli  a  sanction ;  but  that  it 
"svas  and  is  a  most  injurious  book,  no  pure  mind  can  now 
question.  Still,  his  sufferings  in  the  savage  wilds  of 
Scythia  have  ever  touched  the  heart  of  humanity,  and 
no  one  can  read  the  account  which  he  gives  of  the  sudden 
announcement  of  the  severe  decree,  and  his  immediate  ban- 
ishment, without  deep  emotion.  And  should  the  youthful 
reader  find  a  tear  stealing  down  his  cheek  at  the  recital 
of  the  farewell  scene,  he  need  not  be  ashamed  of  it.  The 
decree  was  communicated  on  the  very  night  on  which  he 
was  commanded  to  depart : 

"  Cum  subit  illius  tritissima  noctis  imago, 
Quae  mihi  suprenum  tempus  in  urbe  fuit, 
Cum  repeto  noctem  qu£e  tot  mihi  cara  reliqui 
Labitur  ex  oculis,  nunc  quoque  gutta  meis 
Non  alitur  stupui  quan  qui,  jovis  ignibus  ictus, 
Vivit,  et  est  vitae  nescius  ipse  suae. 
Si  licet  exemplis,  in  parvo,  grandibus  uti, 
Haec  facics  Trojae,  cum  caperetur  erat." 

The  following  is  the  inimitable  description  of  the  part- 
ing scene  : 

"  Ter  limen  tetigi ;  ter  sum  revocatus,  et  ipse, 
Indulgens  animo,  pes  mihi  tardus  erat. 
Saepe  vale  dicto ;  nusus  sum  multa  locutus 
Et  quasi  discedens,  oscula  summa  dedi, 
Saepe  eadem  mandata  dedi ;  meque  ipse  fefelli, 
Respiciens  oculis  pignova  cara  meis 

Denique,  quid  propero  ?     Scj'-thia  est  quo  mittimus  inquam. 
Roma  relinquenda  est ;  utraque  justa  mora  est ; 
Uxor,  in  eternum,  viro  mihi  viva  negatur  ; 
Et  domus,  et  fidge  dulcia  membra  domus." 
Turn  vero  conjux,  humeris  abeuntis  inherens 
Miscuit  hoec  lacrymis  tristia  dicta  suis. 
Non  potes  avelli ;  simul,  ah  simul  ibimus,  inquit 
Te  sequar,  et  conjux  exulis  exul  ero. 
Te  jubet  patria  discedere  Caesaris  ira 


436  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

Me  pietas  ;  pietas  hec  mihi  Caesar  erit 
Talia  tentabat  sic  et  tentaverat  ante." 

It  deserves  to  be  mentioned,  in  proof  of  the  extent  to 
whicli  the  flattery  of  great  men  was  then  carried,  and 
which,  in  earlier  times,  laid  the  foundation  of  idolatry, 
that  Ovid,  hoping  to  propitiate  the  favor  of  Tiberius,  the 
successor  of  Augustus  Csesar,  actually  built  a  temple  to 
him,  and  offered  daily  sacrifices  to  him  in  the  wilds  of 
Pontus.  On  his  way  to  Pontus,  when  a  great  storm 
arose,  he  begs  the  gods  to  spare  the  vessel  and  not  to 
unite  in  Caesar's  wrath,  saying,  "  Ssepe,  premente  Deo, 
fert  Deus  alter  opem" — thus  making  Augustus  one  of  the 
gods  even  while  alive. 

It  may  now  be  asked  of  us,  before  entering  on  the  con- 
sideration of  Ovid's  "  Metamorphoses,"  if  there  be  not 
much  in  them  not  only  of  the  marvellous  and  unintelli- 
gible, but  of  the  shocking  and  indelicate,  calculated  to 
disgust  and  pollute  the  mind,  so  as  to  make  it  an  im- 
proper book  for  the  young,  at  any  rate  without  many 
omissions  and  expurgations.  We  answer,  it  is  even  so, 
and  therefore  some  of  the  fables  are  omitted ;  and  yet 
these  are  not  of  the  nature  of  his  "Art  of  Love,"  but  are 
the  allegories  of  the  ancient  pagans  by  which  they  set 
forth  the  traditions  concerning  the  creation,  tbe  traditions 
of  their  gods,  and  the  early  history  of  man. 

So  corrupted  had  every  thing  concerning  religion  become 
in  the  hands  of  men,  that  it  was  impossible  to  describe  the 
game  without  shocking  purity  and  modesty.  Thus  must 
the  Sacred  Scriptures  often  shock  us  in  order  to  do  their 
work  faithfully  instead  of  deceitfully,  in  suppressing  the 
truth.  Ovid's  "  Metamorphoses"  is  a  compendious  his- 
tory, in  verse,  of  all  the  ancient  traditions  in  relation  to 
God,  and  the  gods  of  the  pagan  world,  and  the  ancient 
history  of  man.     They  are  not  fables  and  allegories  of  his 


ON  ovid's  metamorphoses.  437 

own  invention,  but  those  which  he  has  collected  from  dif- 
ferent sources,  putting  them  into  some  order,  and  clothing 
them  with  verse.  On  this  account  it  has  ever  been  the 
favorite  book  with  the  fathers,  and  with  all  who  wished 
to  find  out  the  earliest  traditions  of  the  heathen  world. 
Tliese  were  the  very  fables  of  the  ancient  world  of  which 
Plato  and  other  philosophers  often  spoke  as  containing  so 
much  of  primitive  truth ;  but  many  of  which  they  could 
not  understand.  Nor  can  we  at  this  day  interpret  them, 
although  Ovid,  coming  nearly  four  hundred  years  after 
Plato,  and  having  better  advantages,  has  taken  great 
pains  to  find  out  and  explain  their  meaning.  Plato,  in 
his  imaginary  "  Republic,"  has  said,  "  That  mothers  and 
nurses  should  season  the  tender  minds  of  their  children 
with  these  instructive  fables,  where  the  wisdom  of  the 
ancients  was  involved."  Lactantius  calls  him  "  an  ingen- 
ious poet,  and  the  '  Metamorphoses '  an  excellent  poem ; " 
St.  Hierome  styles  him  "  a  renowned  poet ; "  St.  Augus- 
tine, "The  excellent  poet."  Erasmus  ascribes  to  him  the 
perfection  of  eloquence.  Marcus  Antoninus  Tritoneus 
says,  "  ]^^ever  was  there  any  one  who  so  diligently  col- 
lected, or  so  elegantly,  learnedly,  and  orderly  expressed 
the  fables  but  Ovid,  who  composed  out  of  Orpheus,  He- 
siod,  Homer,  and  others  of  the  ancient  poets,  so  excellent 
and  noble  a  work." 

Bernardus  Martinus  says,  "  Ovid,  out  of  the  innumer- 
able volumes  of  the  Grecian  poets,  first  gathered  their 
multiplicity  of  fables,  and  with  great  care  composed  out 
of  them  his  divine  poeni.''^ 

Jacobus  Micyllus  says,  "  What  should  I  speak  of  its 
learning  ?  herein  so  great,  so  various,  so  abstruse,  that 
many  places  have  neither  been  explained  nor  understood  ; 
no,  not  by  the  most  learned,  requiring  rather  a  revelation 
from  the  Delian  Oracle.  " 

In  the  face  of  these  testimonies   to  the  unfathomable 


438  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

depths  of  Ovid's  learning,  it  may  well  be  asked  how 
I  should  dare  to  venture  an  attempt  at  understanding  him, 
and  making  use  of  him  for  the  object  of  this  book.  To 
this  I  answer,  "  that,  like  the  scriptures,  some  parts  of 
Ovid  are  deep  enough  to  drown  an  elephant,  while  others 
are  so  shallow  that  a  lamb  may  walk  over."  In  other  words, 
some  parts  of  Ovid  so  plainly  accord  with  scripture,  that 
none  can  misunderstand  them,  although  there  be  others  that 
will  baffle  the  ingenuity  of  the  most  learned.  I  will,  how- 
ever, relieve  myself  from  all  charge  of  presumption  by 
informing  the  reader  of  two  works  which  I  have  before 
me,  and  from  which  I  shall  derive  what  may  be  presented 
on  the  resemblance  between  Ovid's  Metamorphoses  and 
the  Sacred  Scriptures.  The  first  of  these  is  a  translation 
of  the  work  by  Mr.  George  Sandys,  executed  in  the  wilds 
of  Virginia,  at  Jamestown,  a  few  years  after  the  settle- 
ment there.  Mr.  Sandys  was  the  son  of  that  noble  re- 
former, and  bold  defender  of  civil  and  religious  freedom, — 
Edwin  Sandys,  Bishop  of  "Worcester,  then  of  London, 
and  afterwards  Archbishop  of  York.  His  second  son.  Sir 
Edwin,  was  secretary  of  the  Virginia  Company  in  Lon- 
don. George  Sandys  was  the  treasurer  of  the  colony  in 
Virginia,  was  educated  by  the  celebrated  Hooker,  and 
after  travelling  through  Europe,  Egypt,  and  the  Holy 
Land,  joined  the  colony  at  Jamestown  in  the  year  1611. 
There  he  devoted  his  leisure  hours  to  a  translation  of 
Ovid,  and  to  the  preparation  of  a  mass  of  learned  my- 
thological notes,  equally  creditable  to  his  head  and 
heart.  It  was  first  published  in  England  in  1627,  and 
dedicated  to  Prince  Charles,  afterwards  Charles  the  First. 
In  his  dedication,  he  speaks  of  its  "  being  limned  by  that 
imperfect  light  which  was  snatched  from  the  hours  of  night 
and  repose.  "  He  speaks  of  it  as  "a  double  stranger, 
springing  from  the  stock  of  the  ancient  Romans,  but  bred 
in  the  New  World,  of  the  rudeness  of  which  it  cannot  but 


ON  ovid's  mp:tamorphoses.  439 

participate,  especially  having  wars  and  tumults  to  bring 
it  to  light,  "  instead  of  the  Muses.  Alluding  to  the  notes, 
he  says,  "  To  this  I  have  added  '  Mind  to  the  Body  ' — 
The  history  and  philosophical  sense  of  the  Fables.  "  In 
his  poetical  preface,  he  says, 

"  Pha'bus,  Apollo,  sacred  poesy 
Thus  taught :  for  iu  these  ancient  fables  lie 
The  mysteries  of  all  philosophie." 

He  speaks  of  the  fables  as  not  being  Ovid's  ;  for  he 
says,  "  Most  of  them  were  more  antient  than  any  extant 
author,  or  perhaps  than  letters  themselves,  before  which, 
as  they  expressed  their  conceptions  in  hieroglyphics,  so 
did  they  their  philosophy  and  divinity  under  fables  and 
parables  ;  a  way  not  untrod  by  the  sacred  penmen.  "  In 
writing  these  notes  he  appears  to  have  consulted  a  large 
number  of  ancient  authors  from  among  the  fathers,  and 
the  Greek  and  Roman  writers,  especially  Plato. 

On  his  return  to  England  he  wrote  other  translations, 
particularly  one  of  the  Psalms,  which  was  highly  esteem- 
ed. Both  Dryden  and  Pope  spoke  highly  of  his  poetical 
talents.  In  him  and  in  his  brother  Edwin  we  have  addi- 
tional proofs  of  the  zealous  piety  which  was  called  into 
action  in  the  first  settlement  of  Yirginia. 

In  my  quotations  from  Ovid  I  shall  use  the  translation 
of  George  Sandys  in  connection  with  the  Latin  text,  and 
shall  also  make  free  use  of  his  notes. 

The  other  book  to  which  I  referred  is  the  edition  of 
Ovid,  with  notes  critical  and  mythological,  by  JST.  0. 
Brook,  A..  M.,  Professor  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  lan- 
guages, and  late  Principal  of  the  Baltimore  High  School. 
If  all  the  teachers  of  youth  and  editors  of  the  Classics  had 
but  followed  the  example  of  Professor  Brook,  then  classical 
education,  instead  of  ministering  to  scepticism  and  immo- 
rality, would  have  been  a  useful  handmaid  to  Christian- 


440  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

ity.     I  projDOse  to  make  free  use  of  this  book  also.    I  now 
proceed  to  examine  some  parts  of  the  Metamorphoses. 


OVID  S   ACCOUNT  OF  CREATION. 

"  Ante  mare  et  tellus  et  quod  tegit  omnia  coelum, 
Unus  erat  toto  naturae  vultus  in  orbe, 
Quem  dixere  chaos,  rudis  indigestaque  moles  ; 
Nee  quicquam,  nisi  pondus,  iners  conjestaque  eodem, 
Non  bene  junctarmii  discordiaseminarerum." 

"  The  sea,  the  earth,  all-covering  heaven  unframed, 
One  face  had  nature,  which  they  Chaos  named ; 
An  indigested  lump,  a  barren  load, 
"Where  jarring  seeds  of  things  ill-joined  abode." 

Ovid  then  describes  the  manner  in  which  earth  and 
heaven  brought  order  out  of  chaos  or  confusion,  and  sepa- 
rated earth  and  heaven : 

"  Hunc  Deus  et  melior  litem  natura  diremit." 

"  But  God,  the  better  nature,  this  decides, 
Who  earth  from  heaven,  the  sea  from  earth  divides." 

But  soon  after,  with  the  inconsistency  and  uncertainty  of 
the  poets,  he  says  : 

"  Sic  ubi  dispositam,  quisquis  fait  ille  deorum, 
Conjeriem  secuit,  sectamque  in  membra  redigit." 

"  What  god  soever  the  division  vrrought. 
And  every  part  to  due  proportion  brought." 

Mr.  Sandys,  in  his  preface,  has  beautifully  described 
the  arrangement  and  harmony  of  all  things  by  the  Deity, 
under  the  name  of  Love,  by  which  title  some  of  the  an- 
cient fables  called  the  first  of  the  gods  : 

"  Fire,  earth,  air,  water,  —all  the  opposites 
That  strove  in  chaos,  powerful  Love  unites, 
And  from  their  discord  drew  this  hai'mony 
Which  smiles  in  nature." 


ON  ovid's  metamorphoses.  441 

Mr.  Sandys  says  that  Ovid  is  not  at  all  afraid  to  call 
God  the  creator  of  the  world.  He  confesses  God,  nor  dis- 
guiseth  his  name,  whom  he  also  calls  "  The  better  na- 
ture ; "  so  that  by  God  and  "  the  better  nature,"  he  un- 
derstands Ovid  to  mean  the  same  thing  ;  and  not  God  and 
plastic  nature,  as  some  suppose.  God  was  the  better  na- 
ture by  comparison  with  chaos  or  matter,  or,  as  some 
of  the  philosophers  said,  "  Mind,"  or  "  Reason,"  which 
was  the  name  for  God.  Deus  in  Latin  is  the  same  with 
Theos  in  Greek  ;  and  that  comes  from  Theo,  to  dispose  or 
arrange.  This  accords,  not  only  with  the  account  given 
by  Moses  of  God's  ordering  or  arranging  everything  out  of 
chaos  by  Avord  or  command,  but  with  the  general  idea  of 
the  ancients  that  God  was  the  great  architect  of  the  world, 
— only  that  they  do  not  ascribe  to  him  the  original  creation 
of  the  materials  out  of  which  the  world  was  made.  Mr. 
Brook  quotes  Sophocles  as  recognizing  a  God  who  not 
only  disposed  all  things,  but  created  them  : 

"  There  is  really  but  one  God, — 
The  maker  of  heaven  and  earth 
And  sea  and  winds." 

A  passage  from  Orpheus  is  still  stronger  :  "  He  is  one 
self-begotten ;  by  him  alone  are  all  things  which  have 
been  made."  Mr.  Brook  very  justly  remarks,  that  "  Quis- 
quis,  fuit  ille  Deorum,"  who  disposes  all  things,  seems  to 
have  been  an  unknown  God  to  Ovid,  though  he,  doubt- 
less, with  the  heathen  generally,  assigned  every  thing  to 
one  supreme  God. 

We  now  pass  on  to  Ovid's  account  of  the  formation  of 
man,  only  remarking  that  his  account  of  the  formation 
or  ordering  of  all  other  things  is  so  much  after  the  man- 
ner of  Moses,  that  it  is  not  wonderful  that  some  suppose 
him  to  be  indebted  to  the  books  of  Moses,  or  the  writings 
of  the  Jewish  rabbis,  for  some  of  his  statements. 


4:42  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

According  to  Moses,  when  God  had  completed  every 
thing  in  heaven  above,  and  in  the  earth  beneath,  he  made 
man  to  rule  over  all  other  animals.  The  same  order  is 
observed  by  Ovid  : 

"  Sanctius  his  animal,  mentisqiie  capacius  altse 
Deerat  adhuc,  et  quod  dominari  coetera  posset. 
Natus  homo  est ;  sive  hunc  divino  semine  fecit 
Ille  opifex  rerum  ;  mundi  mehoris  origo. 
Sive  recens  tellus,  seductaque  nuper  ab  alto 
Ethere,  cognati,  retinebat  semina  coeli, 
Quam  satus  Japeto  mistam  fluvialibus  undis 
Finxitfin  effigiem  moderantum  cuncta  Deorum, 
Pronaque  cum  spectent  ammalia  coetara  terram 
Os  homini  sublime  dedit  ccelumque  tueri 
Jussit  et  erectos  ad  sidera  tollere  vultus 
Sic,  modo  qute  fuerat  rudis,  et  sine  imagine  tellus 
Induit  ignotas  hominum  conversa  figuras." 

"  The  noble  creature  with  a  mind  possest 
"Was  wanting  yet,  that  should  command  the  rest ; 
That  maker,  the  best  world's  original, 
Either  him  framed  of  seed  celestial, 
Or  earth,  which  late  he  did  from  heaven  divide, 
Some  sacred  seeds  retained,  to  heaven  allied. 
Which  with  the  living  stream  Prometheus  mixt, 
And  in  that  artificial  structure  fixt 
The  form  of  all  the  all-ruling  deities  ; 
And  whereas  others  see  with  down-cast  eyes, 
He  with  a  lofty  look  did  man  endue, 
And  bade  him  heaven's  transcendent  glories  view : 
So  that  rude  clay,  which  had  no  form  before. 
Thus  changed,  of  man  the  unknown  figure  bore." 

Of  this  passage  Sandys  says,  "  The  last  in  act,  but  the 
first  in  intention,  was  the  creation  of  man.  Sprung  of 
celestial  seed,  in  regard  to  the  essence  of  his  soul ;  made 
of  the  earth,  to  teach  him  humility,  yet  after  the  image 
of  God,  not  only  with  regard  to  his  original  integrity,  but, 
as  some  think,  in  the  symmetry  and  beauty  of  his  body,  as 
that  shall  be  glorified  and  clad  with  a  sun-like  brightness." 


ON"  ovid's  metamorphoses.  443 

As  to  Prometheus,  the  son  of  Japheth,  or  Japheth  him- 
self bringing  fire  from  heaven  to  animate  the  clay  into 
man,  he  quotes  Augustine,  "who  reports  him  to  he  a  man 
of  great  wisdom,  who  informed  the  rude  minds  with 
knowledge,  and  raised  them  to  celestial  speculations  and 
astronomical  discoveries."  Some  said  that  he  lived  in  the 
days  of  Jupiter,  when  temples  and  idols  began  to  erected, 
and  that  he  was  the  first  who  ever  made  statues. 

Mr.  Brook  illustrates  and  confirms  the  account  of  man's 
formation,  by  many  ancient  authorities.  "  Sanctius  ani- 
mal," he  says,  must  mean  a  more  divine  animal ;  "  Di- 
vino  semine,"  or  "  cognati  coeli,"  as  though  the  earth, 
just  separated  from  the  heavens,  had  in  it  a  divine  seed, 
from  which  men  might  spring  up  like  unto  the  gods. 
Cicero  asks,  "  Are  we  to  suppose  that  the  divine  seed  fell 
from  heaven  upon  this  earth,  and  that  man  sprang  up  in 
the  likeness  of  his  celestial  sires  ? "  He  elsewhere  says 
that  man  was  a  wonderful  animal — "  Generatum  a  supre- 
mo Deo,  preclara  quadem  conditione."  lie  also  speaks 
of  man  as  being  related  to  heaven,  "  as  being  his  former 
habitation,"  from  which  he  came.  Moses'  account  of 
man  is,  "  that  God  formed  his  body  of  the  dust  of  the 
earth,  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life ; " 
that  thus  God  made  man  in  his  own  image.  In  the  ISTew 
Testament  we  are  told  that  "the  image  or  likeness  consists 
in  knowledge  or  holiness."  Pythagoras  says,  "  Man,  the 
lord  of  creation,  partakes  of  the  nature  of  the  gods." 
Cicero  says,  "  Human  virtue  approaches  nearer  the  di- 
vinity than  the  human  form."  The  human  race,  says 
Orpheus,  according  to  Cedrenus,  was  formed  by  an  im- 
mediate act  of  the  Deity,  and  received  from  him  a  rea- 
sonable soul !  Yirgil  calls  the  soul  "  an  ethereal  sense  ;" 
Horace,  "  a  particle  of  breath  divine."  The  latter  says 
"  that  God  made  man  capable  of  things  divine  :  " 

"  To  beasts  the  breath  of  life,  to  us  a  Hving  soul." 


444  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

"  The  supreme  Grod,"  says  Jamlicus,  "  is  a  monad,  or  one 
prior  to  the  first  god  and  king ;  immovable  in  the  solitude 
of  his  unity ;  the  fountain  of  all  things,  and  the  root  of 
all  primary  intelligible  forms  ;  the  indivisible  one,  the  first 
of  efiigies."  The  pagan  mythologists  and  philosophers  are 
full  of  the  doctrine  of  the  great  God  as  forming  all  things 
after  the  pattern  of  himself, — man  above  all. 

"  Though  but  an  atom  in  immensity, 
I  hold  a  middle  rank  'twixt  heaven  and  earth  : 
The  chain  of  being  is  complete  in  me." 

It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  Ovid  says  nothing  of 
the  formation  of  woman.  Mr.  Brook  is  struck  with  this, 
and  not  only  refers  to  what  Plato  says  as  to  the  two-fold 
nature  of  the  first  man,  but  quotes  one  of  the  hymns  of 
Orpheus  addressed  to  Protogonus,  the  first-born, — who 
was  certainly  Adam, — and  in  which  he  calls  him  two- 
fold : 

"  Oh  mighty,  first-begotten,  hear  my  prayer, 
Two-fold!"* 

In  regard  to  Ovid's  description  of  man's  form, — "  Os 
homini  sublime  dedit," — it  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  the 
Greek  word  for  man,  anthropos,  signifies  "to  direct  the 
countenance  upwards."  Cicero  says,  "  when  he  made  all 
the  animals  to  feed  on  the  ground,  he  made  man  upright, 
to  excite  him  to  view  the  heavens."     Ovid  says, 

"  Quod  loquor  et  spiro,  coelumque  et  lumina  solis 
Aspicio,  (possumque  ingratus  et  immenor  esse) 
Ipse  dedit." 

Concerning  Ovid  and  others,  Mr.  Sandys  remarks, 
"That  the  ancient  poets  among  the  heathen  preserved 
that  truth  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  and  therefore 
Epicurus,  who  maintained  the  contrary,  dehorted  his 
scholars  from  reading  them." 

*  Taylor's  Orpheus. 


CHAPTER   XXXIl. 

ON    OVId's    metamorphoses. PART    SECOND. 

If  it  be  true  that  tliese  books  contain  the  sum  and  sub- 
stance of  all  the  ancient  fables  of  all  countries,  and  that 
these  fables  contain  the  sum  and  substance  of  all  ancient 
religion  and  philosophy,  then  I  need  offer  no  apology  for 
a  second  chapter  on  the  same.  We  now  enter  on  Ovid's 
account  of  the  four  ages  of  the  world.  They  are  succes- 
sive periods  of  the  world,  represented  under  the  fables  or 
allegories  of  the  four  metals, — gold,  silver,  brass,  and  iron, 
• — each  detei'ioratiiig  from  the  preceding  in  value  and  ex- 
cellence. In  like  manner,  the  prophet  Daniel  represents 
the  four  great  monarchies  of  the  ancient  world  hy  a  huge 
image,  whose  head  was  of  fine  gold,  arms  and  breasts 
of  silver,  his  belly  and  thighs  of  brass,  and  whose  legs 
and  feet  were  part  of  iron  and  part  of  clay.  Ilesiod  adds 
to  the  four  ages  a  fifth,  which  may  perhaps  answer  to  the 
"  part  of  clay  "  in  the  prophet  Daniel. 

The  golden  age  is  thus  described  by  Ovid : 

"  Aurea  prima  sata  est  oetas,  qua  vindice  nuUo, 
Sponte  sua,  sine  lege,  fidem  rcctumque  colebat, 
Paena  metusque  aberant :  nee  verbara  minacia  fixo 
^e  Icgcbantur,  nee  supplex  turba  tinebant, 
Judicis  ora  sui ;  sed  erant  sine  judice  tuti, 
Non  galen,  non  ensis  erant ;  sine  militis  usu 
MoUia  securse  peragebant  Otia  gentes. 
Ver  erat  eternum  placidique  tepentibus  auris, 
Mulcebant  zephiri  natos,  sive  semine  flores. 


446  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

Flumina  jam  lactis,  jam  flumina  nectaris  ibant, 
Flavaque  de  viridi  stillabant  illice  mella." 

"  The  golden  age  was  first,  which,  uncompelled, 
And  without  rule,  in  faith  and  truth  excelled : 
As  then  there  was  nor  punishment  nor  fear, 
Nor  threat'ning  laws  in  brass  prescribed  were ; 
Nor  suppliant,  crouching  prisoners  shook  to  see 
Their  angry  judge,  but  all  was  safe  and  free  ; 
Nor  swords  nor  arms  were  yet ;  no  trenches  round 
Besieged  towns, — norstrifeful  trumpet's  sound: 
The  soldiers  of  no  use.     In  firm  content 
And  harmless  ease  their  happy  days  were  spent. 
'Twas  always  Spring.     Warm  zephyrs  sweetly  blew 
On  smiling  flowers,  which  without  setting  grew  ; 
With  milk  and  nectar  were  the  rivers  filled, 
And  honey  from  green  holly  oaks  distilled." 

Hesiod,  from  whom  doubtless  Ovid  borrowed,  says  of 
the  first  inhabitants  of  the  earth, — 

"  Like  gods  they  lived, 
Secure  in  mind,  nor  sweat  with  toil. 
Nor  grieved.     Death  was  as  soft  as  sleep." 

Mr.  Sandys,  with  other  commentators,  considers  that 
the  Sabbatical  year  among  the  Jews  was  instituted  to  rep- 
resent this  period  of  innocence  in  the  golden  age,  when 
they  neither  sowed  their  fields  nor  had  a  propriety  in  the 
fruits  of  the  earth,  which  they  voluntarily  offered.  "  Sat- 
urn," he  says,  "  under  whose  reign  this  state  of  things 
existed,  is  feigned  to  be  the  son  of  Ccelus,  or  heaven,  and 
of  Cybele,  or  earth  ;  so  Adam  had  God  for  his  father,  and 
the  earth  of  which  he  was  made  for  his  mother.  Saturn 
was  the  first  who  invented  or  used  tillage,  and  the  first 
who  ever  reigned  as  king  ;  so  was  this  the  case  with  Adam. 
Saturn  was  thrown  out  of  heaven,  Adam  out  of  paradise. 
Saturn  is  said  to  devour  his  children;  Adam  overthrew  his 


ON  ovid's  metamorphoses.  447 

whole  posterity.  Saturn  liid  himself  from  Jove,  and  Adam 
from  the  presence  of  Jehovah."  Mr.  Brook  and  others 
consider  the  saturnalia  at  Rome, — when  all  labor  was  sus- 
pended, and  servants  were  exempted  from  their  usual 
duties, — to  have  been  instituted  in  honor  of  this  first  age 
of  felicity  in  the  time  of  Saturn  or  Adam.  "The  ancients 
who  were  nearest  the  gods,"  says  Dicearchus,  "  were  of  an 
excellent  disposition,  and  led  so  good  lives  that  they  were 
called  a  '  golden  race.'  "  "  The  first  men,"  says  Tacitus, 
"  before  appetite  and  passion  swayed  them,  lived  without 
bribes  and  without  iniquity,  and  needed  not  to  be  re- 
strained from  the  fear  of  evil  through  punishment."  As 
to  the  perpetual  spring,  some  of  the  learned  have  main- 
tained that  at  first,  and  before  the  curse  or  the  deluge,  the 
axis  of  the  earth  was  perpendicular  to  tlie  equator,  and 
that  the  centre  of  gravity  was  in  the  centre  of  the  earth, 
and  thus  the  seasons  were  uniform.  But  this  is  now  gen- 
erally discarded. 

The  second  is  the  silver  age,  under  Jupiter.  Saturn  was 
dethroned,  and  his  son  Jupiter  assumes  the  government 
of  the  world. 

"  Postquam  Saturno  tenebrosa  in  Tartara  misso, 
Sub  Jove  mundus  erat ;  subit  argentea  proles, 
Auro  dcterior,  fulro  preciosior  a3re. 
Jupiter  antiqua  contraxit  tempora  veris. 
Turn  primum  subiere  domos.     Domus  antra  fuerunt, 
Et  densi  frutices  ct  vinctae  cortice  virga3." 

"  But  after  Saturn  was  thrown  down  to  hell, 
Jove  ruled ;  and  then  the  silver  age  befell, — 
More  base  than  gold,  and  yet  than  brass  more  pure. 
Jove  changed  the  Spring  (which  always  did  endure) 
To  Winter,  Summer,  Autumn  ;  hot  and  cold. 
Men  houses  built,  late  housed  in  caves  profound. 
In  plashed*  bowers,  and  sheds  with  osiers  bound." 

*  Bowers  made  of  limbs  of  trees  interwoven. 


4:48  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

As  to  this  Jupiter,  different  opinions  prevail.  Sandys, 
with  others,  thinks  that  Cain  was  this  Jupiter  ;  that  idol- 
atry first  began  in  his  family  ;  that  in  his  time  the  people 
first  fell  from  the  worship  of  God,  and,  through  fear  or 
flattery,  worshipped  him  as  their  king.  Mr.  Brook  and 
others  think  that  Jupiter  dethroning  his  father  Saturn 
and  succeeding  to  the  empire  of  the  world,  is  a  perversion 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  Mediator.  Tradition  said  that  Saturn 
or  Chronos,  who  were  the  same,  and  sometimes  called 
"  Old  Time,"  being  offended  with  the  sins  of  men,  had 
withdrawn  from  the  superintendence  of  the  earth  and  re- 
tired to  the  remotest  star,  hence  called  Saturn, — then  sup- 
posed to  be  the  most  distant, — -and  that  Jupiter  had  suc- 
ceeded to  the  government  of  the  world.  Certain  it  is  that 
Jupiter,  in  tlie  heathen  mythology,  was  often  represented 
as  a  mediator.  "  He  was  originally,"  says  Mr.  Brook,  "an 
embodiment  of  the  idea  of  the  true  God,  and  was  worshipped 
as  the  Father  of  gods  and  men,  and  the  creator  of  the  uni- 
verse." In  this  place  he  seems  to  occupy  the  place  of  a 
mediator.  In  the  Gothic  mythology  he  is  called  Thor, 
"  the  thunderer,"  and  is  called  the  first-born  of  the  supreme 
God.  The  Edda  calls  him  a  middle  divinity,  or  mediator 
between  God  and  man.  He  is  said  to  have  wrestled  with 
Death,  and  to  have  bruised  the  head  of  the  serpent,  and  in 
his  final  engagement  with  him  to  have  slain  him. 

The  brazen  and  iron  ages  come  together,  so  i-apid  is  the 
transition  from  one  to  the  other, — from  a  warlike  spirit  to 
every  vice. 

"  Tertia,  post  illas,  successit,  Ahenea  proles, 
Seevior  ingeniis,  et  ad  horrida  promtior  arma, 
Nee  seclerata  tamen.     De  duro  est  ultima  ferro, 
Protinus  erupit  venae  pejoris  in  oevum 
Omne  neflis :  fugere  pudor  verumque  fidesque. 
Vivitur  ex  rapto.     Non  hospes  a  hospite  tutus, 
Non  socer  a  genero.     Fratrum  quoque  gratia  rara  est. 
Victajacet  pietas." 


ON  ovid's  metamorphoses.  449 

'•  Next  unto  this  succeeds  the  brazen  age, 
Worse  nurtured  ;  prompt  to  horrid  war  and  rage, 
But  yet  not  wicked.     Stubborn  iron,  the  last : 
Then  blushless  crimes,  which  all  degrees  surpast. 
All  live  by  spoil :  the  host  his  guest  betrays, — 
Sons,  fathers-in-law, — 'twixt  brethren  love  decays : 
Foiled  piety,  trod  under  foot,  expires." 

Mr.  Brook  well  remarks  on  Ovid's  account  of  the  in- 
creasing degeneracy  of  the  brazen  and  iron  ages,  that  ac- 
cording to  the  Bible,  the  rise  of  the  different  arts  and  the 
corruption  of  morals  took  place  at  the  same  tiine.  Tubal 
Cain,  tlie  instructor  of  every  artificer  in  brass  and  iron, 
was  the  son  of  that  Lamech,  who,  by  introducing  polyga- 
my, poisoned  the  stream  of  life  at  its  fountain  head,  and 
laid  tlie  foundation  of  that  degeneracy  which  was  consum- 
mated when  the  sons  of  God,  the  descendants  of  pious 
Seth,  intermarried  with  the  daughters  of  men,  or  progeny 
of  Cain,  who  like  him  went  out  from  the  presence  of  God, 
and  were  equally  godless  and  wicked.  The  floni'ishing  state 
of  the  arts  not  only  ministered  to  the  necessities  of  men, 
but  gave  rise  to  wealth,  luxury,  and  pride ;  while  polyg- 
amy gave  loose  rein  to  lust,  and  thus  avarice,  ambition, 
and  lust  held  joint  empire  over  the  world.  In  conformity 
with  the  scriptural  account  is  the  tradition  in  the  Gothic 
mythology,  where  it  is  expressly  stated  "  that  women  cor- 
rupted the  pui'ity  of  the  early  ages  of  perfection,"  A 
passing  remark  is  due  to  one  passage  in  the  above  quota- 
tion. The  brazen  age  is  said  to  be  "Saevior  injeniis,  et  ad 
horrida  promptior  bella,"  that  is,  more  cruel  in  its  tem- 
pers, and  more  prompt  to  horrid  wars ;  and  still  it  is  added, 
"nee  seclerata  tamen."  How  different  this  from  the  spirit 
of  the  gospel !  How  does  the  next  line  exhibit  the  fruits 
of  a  warlike  spirit, — 

"  Protinus  errupit  venae  pejoris  in  oevum 
Omne  nefas !  " 
20 


450  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

THE   FABLE    OF   THE   GIANTS. 

Before  quoting  from  the  brief  account  of  the  war  of  the 
giants  with  heaven,  we  must  beg  the  reader  ever  to  bear 
in  mind  that  these  are  fables,  and  do  not  profess  to  be  nar- 
ratives of  real  events,  though  they  are  drawn  from  some 
things  which  liave  occurred.  Thej  are  not  mere  creations 
of  the  human  mind  out  of  nothing,  but  have  some  founda- 
tion upon  which  to  rest,  just  as  all  parables  and  allegories 
and  figures  of  speech  refer  to  something  which  they  at- 
tempt to  represent.  All  of  Ovid's  fables,  however  fanci- 
ful and  far-fetched,  have  reference  to  some  historical  fact 
supposed  to  have  occurred:  they  are  something  like  rid- 
dles, hard  to  be  interpreted,  and  various  have  been  tiie 
explanations  given  to  them. 

The  comiection  between  this  and  those  going  before, 
plainly  proves  that  its  design  is  to  show  that  men  in  the 
iron  age  were  not  only  guilty  of  all  manner  of  crimes 
against  their  fellow-men,  but  proceeded  to  the  most  dar- 
ing impiety  towards  heaven ;  were  giants  in  sin,  so  that 
their  sins  might  well  be  represented  as  "  making  war 
against  heaven," — as  piling  mountain  on  mountain  in 
order  to  besiege  and  assault  God,  and  drive  him  from  his 
throne  in  some  miraculous  manner. 

This  is,  no  doubt,  one  of  those  successive  destructions 
and  reproductions  of  the  human  race  of  which  the  hea- 
then mythologies,  especially  the  Oriental,  were  so  full. 

It  may  be  that  this  fable  had  reference  to  the  rebel 
angels  which  were  cast  out  of  heaven,  and  of  whom  Mil- 
ton has  given  us  so  terrific  an  account  in  his  "  Paradise 
Lost."  It  may  have  been  confounded  with  the  account 
of  the  battles  of  the  Titans  and  the  gods,  of  which  Ilesiod 
wrote  in  his  great  poem,  and  which  some  think  relates  to 
the  rebellion  at  Babel.  The  attendant  circumstances,  the 
piling  of  mountain  on  mountain,  Ossa  on  Pelion,  the  cast- 


ON  ovid's  metamorphoses.  451 

ing  them  down  by  Jupiter,  and  the  burying  of  tlic  human 
race  beneath,  and  the  renovation  of  it  from  blood,  of  course 
are  all  fables ;  and  yet  there  may  have  been  facts  from 
which  they  were  drawn.  In  the  history  of  man  there 
have  been  giants  in  stature  as  ^vell  as  in  sin.  In  the  his- 
tory of  the  revolutions  of  the  earth,  there  have  been  vol- 
canoes which  may  have  thrown  up  mountain  upon  moun- 
tain, and  have  then  torn  them  asunder  again.  Islands, 
with  their  mountains,  have  arisen  out  of  the  sea,  and 
others  have  sunk  into  the  deep.  The  lightning  of  heaven 
has  wrought  wonders  on  the  earth ;  earthquakes  have 
swallowed  up  whole  cities.  These  have  been  the  facts 
from  which  the  poets  have  drawn  their  figures  and  mate- 
rials with  which  to  describe  the  moral  history  of  man. 
Our  Lord  himself  said,  "  If  ye  have  faith,  ye  may  remove 
mountains."     This  we  know  was  entirely  figurative. 

Mr.  Sandys  says,  "The  earth,  according  to  the  fable, 
was  so  enraged  with  Jupiter  for  the  slaughter  of  the 
Titans,  that  in  revenge  she  produced  giants  of  a  vast 
proportion;  yet  rather  so  called  from  their  monstrous' 
minds,  for  the  stature  of  men  is  now  as  heretofore,  as  ap- 
pears by  the  embalmed  bodies  of  the  Egyptians  and  the 
ancient  sepulchres  in  Judea."  He  adds:  "As  the  former 
ages  have  produced  some  of  prodigious  height,  so  also 
have  the  latter."  He  then  mentions  some  instances  re- 
corded in  history,  none  of  wdiicli  he  says  ever  exceeded  six 
or  seven  cubits.  "The  first  giants  we  read  of,"  he  says, 
"  were  begotten  by  the  sons  of  God  of  the  daughters  of 
men ;  that  is,  they  were  the  oifspring  of  the  sons  of  Seth 
and  the  daughters  of  Cain.  The  name  signifies  '  to  fall,' 
meaning  their  defection  from  God  and  his  holy  religion. 
They  are  called  in  scripture  "  men  of  renown," — that  is, 
exceeding  in  pride  and  cruelty.  Such  was  the  giant  Nim- 
rod,  after  the  flood.  He  was  the  leader  of  the  builders 
of  the  tower  of  Babel,   whose  top  was  to  reach   unto 


452  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS, 

heaven.     Wliat  was  that,"  he  asks,  "  but  piling  up  moun- 
tain on  mountain  ? " 


THE   DELUGE. 

After  the  judgment  on  Lycaon  and  his  family  by  Jupi- 
ter, by  reason  of  his  great  wickedness,  we  have  an  account 
of  the  deluge.  The  gods  are  assembled  to  determine 
whether  the  human  race  is  again  to  be  destroyed,  and 
how,  whether  by  lire  or  water.  The  latter  is  chosen,  as 
it  is  to  be  destroyed  by  fire  at  some  future  day. 

"  Occidit  una  domus,  sed  non  domus  una  perire 
Digna  fuit :  qua  terra  patet,  fera  regnat  Erjnnis : 
In  facinus  jurasse  putes.     Deut  ocyus  omnes 
Quas  meruere  pati,  sic  stat  sententia  poenas." 

The  very  process  described  by  Moses  being  set  forth  by 
Ovid. 

"  Jamque  mare  et  tellus  nullum  discrimen  habebant, 
Omnia  pontus  erant,  derant  quoque  littora  ponto. 

Deucalion  and  Pyrrha  alone  escape  in  a  vessel  on  Mount 
Parnassus. 

' '  Jupiter  ut  liquidis  stagnare  paludibus  orbem 
Et  superesse  videt  de  tot  modo  millibus  unum 
Et  superesse  videt  de  tot  modo  millibus  unam 
Nubila  disjecit : 

Non  illo  melior  quisquam,  nee  amantior  oequi 
Vir  fuit:  aut  ilia  metuentior  ulla  deorum." 

The  address  of  Deucalion  to  Pyrrha : 

"  0  soror !  O  conjux  !  0  sola  superstes  ! 
Nos  duo  turba  sumus ;  possedit  coetera  pontus." 

"  One  house  that  fate  which  all  deserve  sustains, 
For  through  the  world  the  fierce  Erinnys  reigns ; 


ON  ovid's  metamorphoses.  458 

You'd  think  they  had  conspired  to  sin ;  but  all 
Shall  swiftly  by  deservM  vengeance  falL" 

After  the  waters  had  fallen  : 

"Now  land  and  sea  no  different  visage  bore, 
For  all  was  sea,  nor  had  the  sea  a  shore." 

"  None  was  then  better,  none  more  just  than  he. 
And  none  more  reverenced  the  gods  than  she  ; 
Both  guiltless,  pious  both,  and  all  bereft." 

Affecting  is  the  address  of  Deucalion  to  Pyrrha : 

"Oh !  listen,  oh  !  my  wife,  the  poor  remains 
Of  all  thy  sex, — which  all  in  one  remains  ; 
We  two  are  all, — the  sea  entombs  the  rest." 

Messrs.  Sandys  and  Brook,  my  guides  in  these  notes, 
agree  with  many  others,  that  Ovid  transfers  his  narrative 
and  fable  from  a  partial  deluge  in  Thessaly,  in  the  time  of 
Deucalion  when  most  of  Greece  was  overflowed,  to  that 
of  Noah,  which  happened  more  than  seven  hundred  ^^ears 
before.  This,  however,  is  nothing  for  a  poet.  It  agrees 
too  accurately  with  the  Mosaic  account  to  be  otherwise 
interpreted.  Many  of  the  following  fables  are  evidently 
located  between  this  partial  deluge  and  that  of  Noah, 
As  to  this,  Mr.  Sandys  well  remarks  :  "  There  is  no  nation 
so  barbarous,  not  even  the  salvage  (savage)  Virginians, 
but  have  some  notion  of  so  great  a  ruine."  Mr.  Brook  re- 
marks, that  the  flood  of  Ogyges,  which  was  more  ancient 
than  that  of  Deucalion,  and  which  submerged  not  a  part 
but  the  whole  of  Greece,  was  doubtless  Noah's  flood,  for 
the  word  Ogyges  means  the  ancient :  it  is  thus  used  by 
Hesiod  in  his  "Theogony." 

The  following  comparative  view  of  the  Mosaic  and 
Ovidian  account  of  the  deluge,  by  Mr.  Harcourt,  is  wor- 
thy of  a  pemsal : 


454  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

"We  might  almost,"  lie  says,  "imagine  that  they, 
Ovid's  traditions,  were  copied  from  this  record  of  Moses. 
Thus  Moses  says  that  the  earth  was  filled  with  violence, 
and  that  the  wickedness  of  man  Avas  great,  and  every  im- 
agination of  the  thoughts  of  his  heart  only  evil  continu- 
ally. Ovid  says  that  violence  reigned  as  far  as  the  earth 
extended,  and  that  all  men  seemed  to  have  entered  into  a 
compact  to  be  wicked.  In  Genesis,  God  says,  '  The  end 
of  all  flesh  is  come  before  me,  and  I  will  destroy  them 
from  the  earth.'  In  Ovid,  Jupiter  says,  '  Let  all  instantly 
suffer  the  punishment  they  have  deserved.'  Of  Noah, 
Moses  says,  that  'he  was  a  just  man,  and  perfect  in  his 
generations,  and  righteous  before  the  Lord.'  Of  Deuca- 
lion and  his  wife,  Ovid  says,  that  '  they  were  the  best  of 
mankind ;  innocent  in  their  lives,  lovers  of  justice,  and 
fearing  the  gods.'  Moses  mentions  that  it  was  the  pleas- 
ure of  God  to  bring  a  flood  of  waters  on  the  earth  to  de- 
stroy all  flesh,  in  consequence  of  which,  all  the  fountains 
of  the  great  deep  were  broken  up,  and  the  windows  or 
floodgates  of  heaven  were  opened.  Ovid  says  that  it 
was  the  pleasure  of  Jupiter  to  destroy  the  whole  race  of 
mortals  by  a  flood,  and  for  that  purpose  the  clouds  poured 
down  rain  from  every  quarter  of  the  heavens,  and  the 
fountains  of  the  great  waters  were  broken  up  by  an  earth- 
quake. Moses  declares  that  all  the  high  hills  under  the 
whole  heavens  were  covered ;  that  the  waters  prevailed 
exceedingly  upon  the  earth,  and  covered  the  mountains  ; 
that  they  prevailed  a  hundred  and  fifty  days,  and  that  the 
fowls  were  destroyed  as  well  as  the  cattle  and  beasts. 
Ovid  represents  the  unbounded  riot  of  the  ocean  covering 
the  hills,  and  tlie  strange  waves  dashing  on  the  mountain- 
tops,  and  the  birds  falling  into  the  water  from  fatigue,  be- 
cause there  was  nothing  left  on  which  they  could  alight 
to  rest  their  wings ;  and  though  he  does  not  specify  the 
exact  duration  of  the  flood  at  its  height,  yet  he  supposes 


ON  ovid's  metamorphoses.  455 

it  to  have  lasted  long,  because  lie  makes  length  of  hunger 
from  want  of  food  destroy  all  those  whom  the  water 
spared ;  namely,  those  who,  availing  themselves  of  rafts 
or  boats,  contrived  to  float  above  the  flood,  but  being 
taken  unprepared  for  so  long  a  voyage,  necessarily  died 
of  famine.  Lastly,  the  ark  grounded  on  the  mountains 
of  Ararat.  The  plural  number  is  used,  because,  though 
Ararat  is  but  a  single  mountain  in  the  Armenian  range, 
yet  it  is  terminated  at  either  end  by  a  lofty  peak.  The 
name  by  which  the  natives  distinguished  it  was  Baris, 
the  ship  or  ark,  because  the  remains  of  that  huge  fabric 
were  said  to  be  still  visible  among  its  crags.  In  like 
manner  Ovid  lauds  Deucalion  on  a  mountain  which  rises 
above  the  clouds  in  two  lofty  peaks :  he  calls  it  Parnas- 
sus, but  his  annotator,  Raphael,  observes  that  its  original 
name  was  Larnassus,  from  Larnax,  the  ark  in  which  Deu- 
calion was  saved ;  others,  however,  make  Olympus  the 
diluvial  mountain.  Thus  Paiisanias  says,  "At  Olympia  is 
the  hole  through  which  this  flood  retired,  and  honey-cakes 
were  thrown  into  it  as  a  eucharistic  sacrifice,  and  there 
Deucalion  built  the  first  arkite  temple  to  Olympian  Jupi- 
ter. For  the  same  reason,  no  doubt,  Olympus  was  con- 
sidered the  abode  of  the  gods,  and  '  eternal  sunshine 
made  to  settle  on  its  head.'" 

DESTKUCTION    OF   THE   WOULD   BY   FIRE. 

Having  adduced  so  many  authorities  on  the  subject  of 
the  deluge  in  the  former  part  of  this  book,  I  will  only 
present  some  few  of  the  many  which  might  be  furnished 
in  proof  of  the  traditions  referred  to  by  Ovid  in  this 
fable,  when  he  tells  us  that  the  councils  of  the  gods,  un- 
der the  direction  of  Jupiter,  determined  to  punish  the 
wickedness  of  men  by  water  instead  of  fire,  since  its  final 
destruction  was  to  be  by  the  latter  element. 


456  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

An  old  writer  says, 

"  Dies  irae  dies  ilia 
Solvet  saeclum  in  favilla, 
Teste  David  et  Sibylla"— 

which  is  much  used  in  the  Roman  church  with  the  change 
of  a  word — 

"  Teste  Petro  et  Sibylla." 

and  which  Sir  Walter  Scott  has  used  in  his  famous 
hymn,— 

"  That  day  of  wrath  !  that  dreadful  day,  v 

"When  heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away." 

The  prophet  Zephaniah  had  used  this  same  language 
long  before  any  of  them,  in  his  first  chapter,  though  not 
applying  it  to  the  final  conflagration. 

The  Sib_ylline  verses,  whatever  be  their  origin,  had 
spread  the  belief  in,«or  expectation  of,  a  destruction  of  the 
world  by  fire,  at  some  future  period,  far  and  wide  through 
the  ancient  world.  Plato  tells  us  that  the  Egyptians  held 
it — Cicero,  that  the  Stoics  held  it.  Plutarch  speaks  of  the 
elements  of  the  world  as  things  to  be  burnt  up  with  it, 
and  to  end  with  time. 

These  traditions  accord  with  Isaiah,  who  says  that  all 
'•  the  host  of  heaven  shall  be  dissolved,  and  the  heavens 
be  rolled  together  as  a  scroll ;"  also  with  St.  Peter,  who 
says  that  "  the  heavens  and  the  earth  which  are  now,  by 
the  same  word  are  kept  in  store,  reserved  unto  fire  against 
the  day  of  judgment  and  perdition  of  ungodly  men." 
Then  will 

"  Seas  roar,  earth  tremble,  and  volcanic  fire 
The  mountains  light,  as  if  for  Nature's  funeral  pjTe." 

But,  it  may  be  asked,  where  is  the  fable  or  allegory  in 
the  foregoing  account  of  the  deluge  ?     Is  not  this  an  his- 


ON  ovid's  metamorphoses.  457 

torical  fact  most  universally  received  ?  We  answer,  there 
is  much  of  fable  connected  with  it.  The  manner  of  re- 
peopling  the  earth,  by  Deucalion  and  Pyrrlia,  by  casting 
stones  behind  them  ;  and  Prometheus  peopling  it  by 
making  a  man  of  clay  and  getting  lire  from  the  sun, — are 
fables.  That  these  things  were  not  seriously  said  by  the 
poets,  or  believed  by  the  people,  1  need  not  tell  tlie  reader. 
There  was  therefore  some  hidden  meaning  in  the  fables, 
about  which  there  may  be,  and  have  been,  various  con- 
jectures. Plato  acknowledges  that  he  could  not  certainly 
find  them  out.  As  a  specimen  of  the  explanations  given, 
take  the  following :  "  The  stones  wdiich  Deucalion  and 
Pyrrha  cast  behind  them  were  the  stones  of  the  altar 
which  l^oah  builded  and  offered  sacrifices  upon,  when 
God  promised  his  blessing  and  so  multiplied  his  seed. 

Stones  are  often  mentioned  in  Scripture  as  being  used 
to  build  altars  and  raise  memorials  to  God ;  and  one  of 
the  blessings  promised  to  those  who  worshipped  God  is 
that  of  children.  The  words  of  our  Lord  also  are  remark- 
able, supposed  by  some  to  have  reference  to  this.  "  God 
is  able  of  tliese  stones  to  raise  up  children  unto  Abraham." 

It  is  not  our  intention  to  examine  into  the  possible  or 
probable  meaning  and  design  of  any  other  of  these  fables, 
but  only  to  put  our  readers  in  the  way  of  understanding 
them  in  other  than  a  literal  sense. 

Thus,  the  story  of  Phaeton  daringly  and  impiously 
mounting  the  chariot  of  the  sun  and  producing  a  confla- 
gration, is  literally  believed  by  no  one,  the  thing  being  too 
ridiculous ;  but  there  may  be  conflagrations,  such  as  those 
of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  produced  by  the  sins  of  men, 
which  contributed  somewhat  to  the  storj^,  while  useful 
moral  lessons  may  be  disguised  in  this  extravagant  fiction. 

As  to  all  the  monstrous,  absurd,  and  wicked  transform- 
ations, for  scandalous  purposes,  which  enter  into  many  of 
the  fables,  no  one  of  course  for  a  moment  believed  either 


458  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE    CLASSICS. 

that  there  was  truth  in  thcin,  or  that  the  author  of  the 
fables  designed  that  any  should  think  there  was.  ISTot 
more  did  ^sop  expect  that  his  fables  would  be  literally 
received  ;  and  yet  there  were  some  most  important  ana 
ancient  facts  and  truths  wrapped  up  in  the  most  extrava- 
gant and  fanciful  of  them. 

We  have  the  example  of  the  poets  in  the  time  of  Ovid 
for  thus  interpreting  ancient  fables.  Horace,  for  instance, 
in  his  poem  "  De  Arte  Poetica,"  tells  us  that  Orpheus  was 
said  fabulously  to  have  tamed  lions  and  tigers,  because 
he  improved  the  morals  and  religion  of  the  people  in 
drawing  them  away  from  slaughter  and  filthy  food  ;  and 
Amphion  was  said  to  liave  moved  rocks  by  his  lyre  and 
prayers,  because  he  built  the  walls  of  Thebes  with  stones. 
The  authors  of  the  ancient  fables  wrote  on  the  principle 
set  forth  by  Horace,  in  the  words 

"  Ex  noto  fictum  carmen  sequor." 

They  drew  their  fictitious  poems  from  well-known  and 
historical  or  philosophical  facts. 

The  later  historians  and  philosophers  were  ever  inter- 
preting these  as  best  they  might.  I  do  not  mean  that  we 
have  need  to  resort  now  to  these  fables  for  instruction 
and  improvement,  as  though  we  had  not  the  scriptures 
for  our  guide  to  truth  and  help  to  holiness,  but  as  they 
have  in  former  times  done  some  good  to  the  cause  of  di- 
vine truth,  and  aided  the  fatliers  in  their  contests  with 
pagans,  so  we  may  still  cherish  them  as  the  depositories  of 
the  ancient  traditions  of  the  heathen  world,  subject  to  the 
correction  of  our  unerring  tradition  which  has  come  down 
to  us  from  God  himself. 


ON  ovid's  metamorphoses.  459 


CONCLUSION. 

I  cannot  take  leave  of  Ovid,  wliose  poetry  I  greatly 
admire,  for  whose  sufferings  I  have  felt  sym})athy,  and 
whose  mythology  I  think  may  be  used  to  .advantage, 
without  calling  the  attention  of  my  readers  to  the  Pero- 
ration or  close  of  his  Metamorphoses,  that  they  may  see 
the  melancholy  deficiency  of  all  pagan  piety.  Although 
he  began,  according  to  some,  with  the  words  "Dii  caeptis 
adsprisate  meis,"  yet  how  vain-glorious  and  even  impious 
and  daring  he  closes  : — 

"  Tamque  opus  exegi,  quod  nee  Jovis  ira  nee  ignes 
Nee  poterit  ferrum,  nee  edax  abolere  vetustas, 
Astra  ferar  ;  nomenque  erit  indelebile  nostrum." 

In  this  he  was  only  a  copyist  of  Horace,  who  concludes  his 
work  with  these  words  : 

"  Exegi  monumentum  asre  perennius 
Regali  que  situ  pyramidum  altius, 
Quod  non  iraber  edax,  non  Aquilo  impotens 
Possit  diruere,  aut  innumerabilis 
Annorum  series  et  fuga  temporum. 
Non  omnis  moriar." 

ITow  different   from  the  words  of   Milton    to   the  Great 
Spirit : 

"  What  in  me  is  dark, 
Illumine ;  what  is  low,  raise  and  support, 
That  to  the  height  of  this  great  argument 
I  may  assert  eternal  Providence, 
And  justify  the  ways  of  God  to  men." 

Or  those  of  Dr.  Young  : 

"  0  Thou,  whose  word  from  solid  darkness  struck 
That  spark,  the  Sun,  strike  wisdom  from  my  soul, — 
My  soul,  which  flies  to  thee,  her  trust,  her  treasure  !" 


CHAPTER    XXXIII. 

ON   VIRGIL,    AND   THE    ^NEID,    GEOEGICS,    ETC. 

Virgil  flourished  in  the  reign  of  Augustus  Cassar,  the 
great  patron  of  learned  men  and  poets.  Like  Homer,  he 
was  much  addicted  to  travel  and  the  study  of  astrology. 
He  frequented  the  schools  of  the  most  eminent  professors 
of  the  Epicurean  philosophy,  which  was  then  much  in 
vogue ;  but  being  dissatisfied  with  this  system,  adopted  the 
tenets  of  the  Academic  school,  or  that  of  Socrates  and 
Plato.  He  was  denominated  "The  Plato  of  poets."  Caesar 
being  sick  of  what  has  been  called  the  imperial  evil^ — that 
is,  the  desire  of  being  deified, — Virgil  gratifies  him  to  the 
utmost  in  man}^  of  his  writings,  applying  to  him  the  pro- 
phetic sibylline  verses,  which  have  been  supposed,  by 
Bishop  Horseley  and  others,  to  belong  most  probably  to  the 
Saviour  of  the  world.  This  appropriation  of  these  ancient 
verses  had  previously  been  assigned  by  flattering  poets  to 
others  beside  Augustus.  Dryden,  the  translator  of  Vir- 
gil, prefers  him  as  a  moralist  to  all  other  poets.  "  Tliere 
is  nothing,"  he  says,  "in pagan  pliilosophy,  more  true  and 
more  just  tlum  Virgil's  Ethics.  The  esteem  for  him  de- 
generated into  that  form  of  superstition  called  the  "  Vigil- 
ian«  Sortes,"  by  which  a  passage  accidently  fallen  upon 
in  opening  his  book  was  said  to  contain  a  divine  direction 
or  prophecy.  With  the  history  and  writings  of  Virgil  we 
have  nothing  to  do,  except  so  far  as  they  may  contribute 
to  the  object  of  this  book.      Though  living  so  near  the 


ON   VIRGIL.  461 

Christian  era,  he  substantially  retains  the  mythology  of 
Homer  and  Hesiod,  the  great  classifiers  of  the  gods.  Some 
new  deities  had  been  added,  and  Yirgil  does  his  best  to  ele- 
vate Augustus  to  an  equal  share  on  the  throne  of  Jupiter : 

"  Divisum  imperium  cum  Jove  Caesar  habet." 

In  his  fourth  pastoral  we  have  those  beautiful  lines  in  which 
he  applies  to  Augustus  the  sibylline  verses,  suj^jposed  by 
so  many  learned  men  to  have  been  ancient  ])ropliecie3 
which  had  come  down  from  early  days,  and  which  be- 
longed to  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  We  give  Dryden's 
translation  in  this  and  all  following  quotations,  instead  of 
the  original : 

"  The  last  great  age,  foretold  by  sacred  rhymes, 
Renews  its  finished  course.     Saturnian  times 
Roll  round  again  ;  and  mighty  years  begun, 
From  their  first  orb  in  radiant  circles  run. 
The  base,  degenerate  iron  offspring  ends ; 
A  golden  progeny  from  heaven  descends." 

In  his  sixth  pastoral  he  makes  old  Silenus  sing  of  the 
origin  of  all  things  : 

"  lie  sang  the  secret  seeds  of  Nature's  pains ; 
How  seas,  and  earth,  and  air,  in  active  tlames, 
Fell  through  the  mighty  void,  and  in  their  fall, 
"Were  blindly  gathered  in  this  goodly  ball." 

He  then  gives  the  progress  of  all  things  from  this  chaos, 
very  much  after  the  manner  of  Moses,  and  proceeds  to  the 
formation  of  man : 

"  From  thence  the  birth  of  man  the  song  pursued. 
And  how  the  world  was  lost  and  how  renewed. 
The  reign  of  Saturn,  and  the  golden  age, 
Prometheus'  theft,  and  Jove's  avenging  rage." 


462  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS, 

Here  we  have  the  deluge,  and  the  improved  manners  of 
the  renewed  earth  under  Saturn  or  Noah,  which  is  the 
second  gohlen  age. 

In  his  Georgics,  where  he  teaclies  the  management  of 
fields,  orchards,  gardens,  trees,  and  cattle,  he  begins  by 
invoking  all  the  minor  deities  presiding  over  these  several 
departments  of  nature, — 

"  Ye  deities,  who  fields  ami  plains  protect, 
Who  rule  the  seasons,  and  the  year  direct- 
Come,  all  ye  gods  and  goddesses  that  wear 
The  rural  honors,  and  increase  the  year !  '* 

Then  turning  his  fulsome  verse  to  Augustus — 

"  And  chietly  thou,  whose  undetermined  state 
Is  yet  the  business  of  the  gods'  debate ; 
Whether,  in  after  times,  to  be  declared 
The  patron  of  the  world,  and  Rome's  peculiar  guard  ; 
Or,  o'er  the  fruits  and  seasons  to  preside. 
And  the  round  circuit  of  the  year  to  guide." 

In  the  following  passages  addressed  to  husbandmen,  we 
are  reminded  of  similar  ones  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures: 

*  "  Tlie  Sire  of  gods  and  men,  with  hard  decrees, 
Forbids  our  plenty  to  be  bought  with  ease ; 
And  wills  that  mortal  man,  inured  to  toil. 
Should  exercise  with  pains  the  grudging  soil." 

In  the  following  passage  we  have  a  description  of  God 
much  like  those  in  scripture : 

"  The  Father  of  the  gods  his  glory  shrouds. 
Involved  in  tempests  and  a  night  of  clouds." 

VIKGIL    ON    PRAYER. 

In  all  his  directions  he  never  fails  to  enjoin  prayers  to 
^he  gods  for  a  blessing  on  their  fields  and  labors. 


ON   VIRGIL.  463 


VIRGIL   ON   THE   LOM'ER   ANIMALS. 

Speaking  of  the  lower  animals,  he  shows  his  dissent  from 
some  who  think  they  have  souls  : 

"  Not  that  I  tliink  tlieir  breasts  ■\vitli  lioavenly  souls 
Inspired,  us  mau  who  destiny  controls. ' 


VIRGIL  S   DISTINCTION   OF   THE    GODS. 

"Ye  lionie-born  deities  of  mortal  birtli, 
Tliou  father  Koraulus,  and  mother  Earth  I  " 


VIRGIL  S    ^NKID. 

Tliis  is  his  masicr  work,  second  on]_y,  in  the  estimation 
of  all  ages,  to  the  Iliad  of  Homer;  b}'  some,  preferred  be- 
before  it.  It  opens  with  a  sad  account  of  the  Queen  of 
Heaven : 

"  Arms  and  the  man  I  sing,  who,  forced  by  Fate 
And  liaiighty  Juno's  unrelenting  hate." 

"Well  does  the  poet  ask — ■ 

"  Can  heavenly  minds  such  high  resentment  show, 
Or  exercise  their  spite  in  human  woe?'' 

A  doubt  as  to  the  existence  and  character  of  the  gods  is 
thus  expressed : 

"  If  there  be  gods  in  heaven,  and  gods  are  just.'" 

The  little  respect  felt  for  their  deities  is  expressed  in  the  fol- 
lowing lines,  by  an  unsuccessful  competitor  in  the  Games  : 

"Gyas  blasphemed  the  gods,  devoutly  swore, 
Cried  out  for  anger,  and  his  hair  he  tore." 


464  THE   BIBLE  AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

Again,  in  tlie  midst  of  the  great  sufferings  of  the  Trojans, 
the  poet  says, 

"  The  goddess,  great  in  mischief,  views  their  pain." 

Again,  one  is  made  to  exclaim, 

"  If  gods  are  gods,  and  not  invoked  in  vain." 

Of  one  of  them, — Hecate, — it  is  said, 

"  A  powerful  name  in  hell  and  upper  air." 

Jupiter,  while  drawing  out  the  Fates,  says  of  himself, 

"Equal  and  unconcerned  I  look  on  all." 

And  yet  Dido,  disappointed  in  her  love,  exclaims, 

"The  gods,  and  Jove  himself,  behold  in  vain 
Triumphant  treason— yet  no  thunder  flies  ! 
Faithless  is  earth,  and  faithless  are  the  skies." 

Concerning  the  characters  of  the  gods  who  presided  over 
the  armies  of  ^'Eneas  and  Latinus,  we  are  shocked  at  the 
only  atheist  who  appears  in  Virgil's  poem.  Mezentius 
thus  speaks,  when  surrounded  by  foes  and  about  to  be 
slain : 

"  My  strong  right  hand  and  sword,  assist  my  stroke  ! 
Those  only  gods  Mezentius  will  invoke : 
Nor  fate  I  fear,  but  all  the  gods  defy  ; 
Forbear  thy  threats — my  business  is,  to  die." 

His  only  recpiest  was  a  grave — • 

"  Refuse  it  not,  but  let  my  body  have 
The  last  retreat  of  human  kind, — a  grave." 

I  only  add  on  this  subject  two  lines,  which  relate  to  two 


ON  VIRGIL.  465 

deities  or  principles  on  which,  in  truth,  was  the  chief  re- 
liance of  the  poor  pagans : 

"  But  Fate  and  envious  fortune  now  prepare 
To  plunge  the  Latins  in  the  last  despair." 

On  the  subject  of  Fate,  the  theulogy  and  philosophy  of 
Yirgil  are  exactly  that  of  Homer  and  others.  The  chief 
deity  was  identified  with  late.  The  pious  JEneas  is  called 
"The  awful  god  elect," 

"  And  ripe  for  heaven.     "When  Fate  ^Eneas  calls, 
Then  shalt  thou  bear  him  up  sublime  to  me." 

Fate  and  the  gods  are  often  joined  together — 

"If  so  the  Fates  ordain,  and  Jove  commands." 

Again, — 

"  Yet  Where's  the  doubt  to  souls  secure  of  Fate  ?  " 

Chance  is  sometimes  introduced.  Thus  Dido,  the  suicide, 
is  spoken  of : 

"  For  since  she  died,  not  doomed  of  Heaven's  decree 
Or  her  own  crime,  but  human  casualty. 
And  rage  of  love,  that  plunged  her  in  despair." 

Still  Fate  has  a  part,  and  thus  does  she  sanction  suicide  : 

"  My  fatal  course  is  finished,  and  I  go 
A  glorious  name  among  the  ghosts  below." 

Again,  Jove  himself  is  said  to  be  unable  to  manage 
Fate: 

"  'Tis  Fate  directs  our  course,  and  Fate  wq  must  obey." 
30 


466  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

The  sibjl  is  also  thus  represented  : 

"  Then  full  of  Fate  returns,  and  of  the  god." 

The  piety  of  JEneas, — pious  J^^neas, — is  represented  as 

"  Observant  of  the  right,  and  religious  of  his  word." 

Again, — 

"  Thus  fearing  guilt  for  some  offence  unknown, 
With  prayers  and  tears  the  Dryads  I  atone 
With  all  the  sisters  of  the  woods 
And  most  the  God  of  Arms." 

He  is  represented  on  one  occasion  as 

"  FuU  of  religious  doubts  and  awful  dread." 

He  was  careful  to  carry  with  him  from  Troy  his  house" 

hold  gods,  more  mindful  of  these,  some  think,  than  of  his 

wife,  Creusa : 

"  My  household  gods,  companions  of  my  woes, 
With  pious  care  I  rescued  from  my  foes." 

In  his  last  battle  this  was  his  prayer  : 

"  All  rosy  sun,  and  thou  Ansonia's  soil, 
For  which  I  have  sustained  so  long  a  toil, 
Thou  king  of  heaven,  and  thou  the  queen  of  air, 
Propitious  now,  and  reconciled  by  prayer." 

"The  god  of  war, 
The  living  fountain  of  the  running  floods. 
The  power  of  ocean,  and  the  ethereal  gods," 

are  all  invoked. 

The  pious  Latinus,  king  of  Italy,  on  the  same  occasion 

invokes 

"  Heaven,  Earth,  and  Main, 

And  all  the  powers  that  aU  the  three  contain  : 

By  hell  below  I  swear,  and  by  that  upper  God 

"Whose  thunder  signs  the  peace  and  seals  it  by  his  nod. 


ON  VIRGIL.  467 


JUPITER  S   TITLES    AND   AUTHOEITY. 

He  is  sometimes  called  "  The  Founder  of  Mankind  ;" 
then  "  The  Son  of  Saturn  ;"  then  "  All-powerful  Jove," 

"  Who  sways  the  world  below  and  heaven  above, 
Disposes  all  with  absolute  command." 

Yenus  calls  him, — "  O  power  immense  !"    "  Eternal   en- 
ergy !  " 


VIRGIL  ON"  ORIGINAL    SIN,  OR   ENTAILED  CORRUPTION,  AS    SEEN 
EST   THE  WICKED   DESCEND^VNTS    OF   BASE  LAOaiEDON. 

"  Can  gratitude  in  Trojan  souls  have  place  ? 
Laomedon  still  lives  in  all  his  race." 

WOMAN. 
"  Woman's  a  various  and  a  changeful  thing." 

This  is  borrowed  from  Ilesiod. 

GOOD   ANGELS. 

"  'Twas  dead  of  night,  when,  to  his  slumbering  eyes. 
His  father's  shade  descended  from  the  skies — 
And  thus  he  spake  :  '  The  king  of  heaven  employs 
Mj''  careful  ghost  on  his  commands.'  " 

THE    SERPENT. 

The  serpent,  guarding  the  tomb  of  Anchises,  comes  out 
when  ^neas  celebrates  his  death  with  games : 

"  Scarce  had  he  finished,  when  with  speckled  pride 
A  serpent  from  the  tomb  began  to  glide : 
His  hugy  bulk  on  seven  high  volumes  rolled  ; 
Blue  was  his  breadth  of  back,  but  streaked  with  scaly  gold. 


468  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

Thus  riding  on  his  curls,  he  seemed  to  pass 
A  rolhng  wave  of  fire,  and  singed  the  grass. 
More  various  colors  through  his  body  run, 
Than  Iris'  bow  when  it  imbibes  the  sun." 


DIVISION    OF   THE    WORLD. 

Virgil  makes  the  same  division  of  the  world  among  the 
three  great  deities, — Jupiter,  Neptune,  and  Pluto, — that 
Homer  does.  When  ^olus  raised  a  storm  against  the 
fleet  of  ^neas,  imperial  Neptune  thus  rebukes  the  winds  : 

"  Hence  to  your  lord  my -royal  mandate  bear  : 
The  realms  of  ocean  and  the  fields  of  air 
Are  mine,  not  his.     By  fatal  lot  to  me 
The  liquid  empire  fell,  and  trident  of  the  sea. 
His  power  to  hollow  caverns  is  confined : 
There  let  him  reign,  the  jailer  of  the  wind, 
With  hoarse  commands  his  breathing  subjects  call, 
And  boast  and  bluster  in  his  empty  hall." 


VIRGIL   ON   INSPIKATION, 

Inspiration  was  believed  in  by  some  of  the  heathen. 
"  Jove  will  inspire  him,  when,  and  what  to  say." 

MULTIPLICITY    OF   NAMES    FOR   THE    SAME   GOD. 

The  sibyl  in  the  Cumsean  cave 

"  Thrice  invokes  the  powers  below  the  ground : 
Night  Erebus  and  Chaos  she  proclaims, 
And  threefold  Hecate  with  her  hundred  names. 
And  three  Dianas." 

The  whole  character  of  the  pagan  religion  and  morality, 


ON    VIRGIL.  469 

both  of  Gods  and  worshippers,  has  been  well  set  fortli  by 
Milton  in  two  words  : 

'■'■Lust  hard  by  hate.'''' 

Lust,  revenge,  and  cruelty  make  up  the  parts  and  wor- 
ship of  paganism. 

Amid  the  ravings  of  Dido  at  the  flight  of  ^Eneas,  she 
exclaims  : 

"  And  unrevenged,  'tis  doubly  to  be  dead." 

When  about  to  cast  herself  on  the  funeral  pile,  she  thus 
imprecates  curses  upon  him  : 

"  Thou  Sun,  who  viewest  the  world  below  ! 
Thou  Juno,  guardian  of  the  nuptial  vow! 
Thou  Hecate,  hearken  from  thy  dark  abodes  ! 
Ye  furies,  fiends,  and  violated  gods  ! 
All  powers  invoked  with  Dido's  dying  breath, 
Attend  her  ciu"ses  and  revenge  her  death !  " 

In  nothing  does  the  Christian  religion  more  strikingly 
and  favorably  compare  with  all  the  systems  of  paganism, 
than  in  regard  to  revenge  or  hate.  In  the  one  these  feel- 
ings are  condemned  as  being  not  of  God  ;  in  the  others 
they  are  cherished  as  noble  traits  of  humanity. 

The  strifes  of  the  gods  are  tlie  same  in  Virgil  as  in 
Homer.  "  Tanta^ne  animis  celestibus  Irae,"  may  well  be 
said  of  them. 

"  E'en  Jove  is  thwarted  by  his  haughty  wife — 
Still  vanquished,  yet  she  still  renews  the  strife." 

"  For  neither  Fate, 
Nor  time,  nor  pity,  could  remove  her  hate," 

is  said  of  the  enmity  which  she  bore  the  Trojan  race. 


470  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

THE    sibyl's    cave   AND   THE   ABODES    OF    THE   DEAD. 

^neas  determines  to  visit  Lis  father  Anchises  in  Hades 
or  hell,  in  order  to  learn  something  of  his  own  future  fate. 
He  therefore  seeks  the  Oracle  and  temple  of  Apollo,  that 
he  might  get  the  aid  of  the  Sibylline  priestess. 

"  Deep  in  a  cave,  the  Sibyl  makes  abode." 
After  some  awful  scenes,  the  raving  Sibyl  appears — 
"  When  all  the  god  comes  rushing  on  her  soul." 

She  points  to  the  road,  but  learns  that 

"  The  gates  of  hell  lie  open  night  and  day, 
Smooth  the  descent,  and  easy  is  the  way ; 
But  to  return  and  view  the  cheerful  sky, — 
In  this  the  task  and  mighty  labor  lie." 

Having  ushered  him  into  the  entrance,  she  begins  to  tell 
"  The  mystic  wonders  of  the  silent  state." 

Just  in  the  gate  and  in  the  jaws  of  hell  are  to  be  seen 
revengeful  cares,  sullen  sorrows,  pale  disease,  repining, 
age,  want,  fear,  famine,  toils,  death,  sleep,  frauds,  force, 
strife. 

Tiiere  were  forms  without  bodies — empty  phantoms. 
They  are  hastening  down  to  the  shore  to  be  ferried  over. 
Some  are  assured  by  Charon  that 

"  The  ghosts  rejected,  are  the  unhappy  crew 
Deprived  of  sepulchres  and  funerals  due. 
A  hundred  years  they  wander  on  the  shore — 
At  length,  their  penance  done,  are  wafted  o'er." 

Some  by  stratagem  and  daring  and  bribery  get  over  the 
river  Styx,  contrary  to  law  ;  for  Charon  says, 

"  My  boat  conveys  no  living  bodies  o'er." 


o:n"  VIRGIL.  471 

The  first  objects  that  present  themselves  are  little  chil- 
dren : 

"  Before  the  gate  the  cries  of  babes  new  born, 

Whom  Fate  had  from  their  tender  mothers  torn, 

Assault  his  ears." 

Then  those  who  liad  been  unjustly  condemned,  and  who 
were  appealing  to  their  judge  for  a  reversal  of  their  sen- 
tence.    Then  the  unhappy  suicides, 

"  Who  prodigally  threw  their  souls  away," 

are  in  a  state  of  suffering;. 

Then  come  the  mournful  fields,  where  unhappy,  disap- 
pointed lovers  dwell : — and  here  vEneas  sees  the  shade  of 
Dido.  Then  he  passes  by  the  regions  of  the  damned,  who 
for  great  crimes  are  doomed  to  intolerable  and  endless 
pains.     The  guide  thus  concludes  : 

"  Had  I  an  hundred  mouths,  an  hundred  tongues. 
And  throats  of  brass  inspired  with  iron  tongues, 
I  could  not  half  their  horrid  crimes  repeat. 
Nor  half  the  punishment  their  crimes  have  met."  * 

The  guide  then  leads  him  to  the  Elysian  fields,  where 

"  Those  happy  spirits  which,  ordained  by  Fate, 
For  future  being  and  new  bodies  wait." 

There  he  meets  with  the  ghost  of  Anchises  : 

"  Then  thrice  around  his  neck  his  arms  he  threw. 
And  thrice  the  flitting  shadow  slips  away." 

*  Among  the  sufFeriugs  which  the  pagans  ascribe  to  the  damned,  may  be 
mentioned  that  of  Syciphus,  a  noted  robber,  who  was  doomed  to  roll  a  huge 
round  stone  to  the  top  of  a  hill  in  the  infernal  region,  whicli,  just  as  it  reaches 
the  top,  rolls  back  again. 

"  Up  the  high  hill  he  heaves  a  huge  round  stone." 

Another  is  that  of  Ixion  bound  to  the  peak  of  a  mountain,  with  a  vulture 
gnawing  at  its  liver  but  never  consuming  it.  Thus  did  they  set  forth  eternal 
punishment. 


472  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

^Eneas  next  beholds  crowds  of  ghosts  thronging  to 
drink  of  tlie  waters  of  Lethe,  or  Forgetfuhiess,  and  is  in- 
formed by  his  father's  ghost  that  they  are  those 

"  To  whom  by  Fate  are  other  bodies  owed." 

Then  the  poet  unfolds  their  system.  One  soul,  he  says, 
animates  the  sun,  and  moon,  and  stars,  and  waters.  From 
this  soul,  men  and  beasts  obtain  life  : 

"  The  ethereal  vigor  is  in  all  the  same." 

Men  cannot  be  reunited  with  this  soul  of  the  world,  as 
some  of  the  philosophers  held.  By  varions  penances,  how- 
ever, some  are  so  purified  as  to  be  permitted  to  enter  the 
Elysian  fields,  where  they  are  further  purified,  so  that 
nothing  but  the  pure  ether  of  the  soul  remains.  Then 
they  are  made  to  drink  of  the  waters  of  Lethe, 

"  That,  unremembering  of  its  former  pain, 
The  soul  may  suffer  mortal  flesh  again." 

Here  we  have  the  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  souls 
which  was  so  generally  held  by  the  ancients.  The  highest 
hope  held  out  by  that  system  was,  that  after  suffering  for 
a  long  time,  and  waiting  in  Elysium  till  the  soul  was  pu- 
rified and  became  pure  ether,  it  might  be  transferred  to 
some  earthly  body  again,  having  forgotten  all  that  was 
past.*  The  wicked,  who  were  in  Tartarus,  had  no  such 
hope  held,  out  to  them.  Thus  was  the  doctrine  of  rewards 
and.  punishments,  and  of  the  unity  of  God,  set  forth  in  the 
ancient  mysteries.  It  is  generally  admitted  that  Virgil 
adopted  this  method  of  representing  the  doctrines  which 

*  The  Druids  taught  the  doctrine  of  transmigration  to  the  Germans,  en- 
couraging them  to  fight  bravely  and  die,  from  the  belief  that  their  souls  would 
pass  iuto  other  bodies.  Some  of  the  Jews  seemed  to  believe  that  the  soul  of 
John  the  Baptist  had  passed  into  the  Saviour,  and  that  he  was  John  the  Bap- 
tist risen  from  the  dead. 


ON  VIRGIL.  473 

were  set  fortli  in  tlie  ancient  mysteries  of  the  heathen. 
Bnt  this  seems  rather  the  unity  of  pantheism  than  that 
taught  in  the  Bible.  And  how  different  these  bodies  from 
those  with  which  we  expect  to  be  clothed  at  the  resur- 
rection ! 

We  may  well  be  shocked  to  find  that  those  who  are  in 
the  first  division  of  Hades,  or  purgatory,  or  on  the  con- 
fines, were  those  three  innocent  classes  of  sufferers,  viz : 
little  children,  dying  as  soon  as  born ;  those  who  were  un- 
lawfully condemned  for  any  crime ;  and  those  whose  bodies 
were  unburied.  It  has  been  pleaded,  in  behalf  of  these 
horrible  things,  that  the  legislators  and  founders  of  the 
mysteries  introduced  them  from  the  most  humane  motives, 
viz :  to  prevent  the  destruction  of  children  by  their  pa- 
rents, the  unjust  condenmation  of  innocent  persons,  and 
the  secret  murder  of  any  who  must  thereby  be  deprived 
of  funeral  rites,  seeing  that  those  innocent  ones  would  be 
exposed  to  so  much  suffering  in  the  purgatory  of  the 
pagans. 

CONCLTrDING   EEMAKKS. 

As  to  this  doctrine  of  transmigration,  we  have  but  to 
say,  that  if  all  the  wicked  were  confined  in  Tartarus  for 
ever ;  and  if  those  who  for  a  long  period  of  time  were  doing 
penance  in  the  pagan  purgatory,  or  improving  in  Elysium 
until  all  stains  were  washed  away,  and  only  those  were 
allowed  to  enter  new  bodies  and  live  over  again  on  earth, 
surely  we  might  expect  that  a  great  improvement  would 
have  taken  place  in  the  world,  and  the  human  race  would 
have  been  quite  perfected  by  this  time. 

"We  still,  however,  grant  that  the  mysteries  which  Yirgil 
represents  in  his  sixth  book  were  intended  for  good,  and 
were  for  a  time  productive  of  good.  Thus  Euripides,  in 
one  of  his  plays,  says,  "  Happy  is  the  man  who,  initiated 
in  the  mysteries  of  the  gods,  purifies  his  life  and  makes 


474  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

his  soul  expiate  in  the  rites  of  Bacchns  by  pious  lustra- 
tions on  the  mountains."  This  Bacchus  was  the  same 
with  Dionusus,  the  god  of  the  ark.  Mr.  Harcourt  shows 
how  the  same  is  set  forth  in  the  Indian  mythology,  where 
the  god  of  the  trident  and  the  deluge,  who  was  none 
other  than  Dionusus,  Bacchus,  or  Noah,  is  thus  addressed  : 
"O  worthy  man!  O  Hara,  Hara!  ascend  into  thy  cave; 
hence  send  letters ;  but  into  thy  cave  go  secretly." 
Again :  "  See  the  door  of  your  cave ;  break  it ;  023en  and 
conceal  thyself  therein  !  "  In  which  he  believes  there  is 
reference  to  the  ark  and  deluge, — things  prominently  re- 
ferred to  in  the  ancient  mysteries. 

The  early  fathers  had  frequent  reference  to  them.  Thus 
Clement  compares  the  mysteries  or  sacraments  of  Chris- 
tianity to  them.  "  Ours,"  he  says,  "  are  the  venerable 
orgia  of  the  word."  "  O  truly  holy  mysteries !  being 
initiated,  I  am  made  holy."  "These  are  the  Bacchanalia 
of  my  mysteries  ;  come  thou  and  be  initiated  !  " 

APPENDIX    TO    THE    CHAPTER    ON    VIEGIL,    IN   WHICH    HIS    EEF- 
EEENCE   TO    THE    SIBYLLINE   BOOKS   IS    CONSIDEEED. 

Having  promised,  in  a  previous  chapter,  something 
more  concerning  these,  celebrated  books,  we  now  give 
the  views  presented  by  Bishop  Horseley  in  his  treatise 
"  On  the  Prophecies  of  the  Messiah  dispersed  among  the 
Heathen,"  which,  though  left  unfinished  at  his  death, 
showed  a  most  careful  study  of  the  subject. 

He  believes  that  these  books  contained  some  of  those 
ancient  traditions  and  prophecies  of  a  great  Deliverer 
who  was  to  come,  and  which  were  floating  through  the 
world  during  the  patriarchal  age,  not  merely  in  the  family 
of  Abraham,  but  in  other  lines.  An  extraordinary  book, 
under  the  name  of  the  Oracles  of  the  Cumsean  Sibyl, 
was  found  at  an  early  period  of  Rome,  and  held  in  such 


ON  VIRGIL.  4Y5 

veneration  as  to  be  kept  in  a  stone  cliest  in  the  temple  of 
Jupiter,  and  committed  to  tlie  care  of  two  persons,  who 
were  enjoined  to  keep  the  contents  from  the  pnl)lic,  under 
heavy  penalties.  About  a  century  before  the  birth  of 
Christ,  the  temple  in  which  they  were  contained  was 
burned  and  they  were  consumed.  Tlie  Roman  senate 
thought  it  of  so  much  importance  to  repair  the  loss,  that 
they  sent  persons  into  various  countries  to  collect  the 
fragments  of  the  same,  which  were  supposed  to  be  in  ex- 
istence, and  the  most  learned  men  of  Rome  were  employ- 
ed to  select  from  the  returns  what  they  judged  to  be  most 
authentic.  There  was  certainly  a  great  resemblance  be- 
tween some  thino;s  contained  in  these  books  as  to  the 
great  Deliverer,  and  those  in  the  scriptures  as  to  the 
Messiah. 

Yirgil,  in  his  fourth  Pastoral  addressed  to  Pollio,  is 
supposed  to  be  flattering  Augustus  as  being  that  great 
Deliverer,  by  copying  from  the  Cumaean  verses,  and  ap- 
plying them  to  him : 

"The  last  great  age,  foretold  by  sacred  rhj'mes, 
Renews  its  finished  course.     Saturnian  times 
Roll  round  again ;  and  mighty  years  begun, 
From  their  first  orb  in  radiant  circles  run. 
The  base  degenerate  Iron  offspring  ends : 
A  golden  progeny  from  heaven  descends. 
The  jarring  nations  he  in  peace  shall  bind, 
And  with  paternal  virtues  rule  mankind." 

Julius  Csesar,  through  his  friends,  wished  to  have  it 
believed  that  he  was  the  person  alluded  to  in  the  Sibyl 
line  books,  as  a  means  of  obtaining  the  kingly  govern- 
ment of  Rouie ;  but  Cicero,  who  had  access  to  these  docu- 
ments, and  who  was  opposed  to  Csesar's  elevation,  denied 
that  they  were  prophecies,  alleging  that  they  were  not 
frenzied  enough  in  their  style  to  be  the  work  of  prophets, 
but  bears  testimony  to  their  excellence  by  saying,  "  Let 


476  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

US,  tlien,  adhere  to  the  prudent  practice  of  our  ancestors  ; 
let  us  keep  the  Sibyl  in  religious  privacy.  These  writings," 
hie  said,  "  are  indeed  rather  calculated  to  extinguish  than 
to  propagate  superstition."  Bishop  Horseley  says,  that 
"  These  prophecies,  wherever  they  might  be  found,  could 
be  of  no  other  than  a  divine  original ;  the  matter  and  the 
style  of  them  is,  in  my  judgment,  an  irrefragable  argu- 
ment." They  were  fragments,  he  says,  mutilated,  per- 
haps, and  otherwise  corrupted,  but  they  were  fragments 
of  the  most  ancient  prophecies  of  the  patriarchal  ages. 
He  then  proceeds  to  show  the  probability  of  such  prophe- 
cies having  been  preserved  in  other  than  the  Jewish  na- 
tion, from  the  evidences  of  remaining  truth  and  piety 
among  them,  as  recognized  in  the  Old  Testament,  until 
the  time  of  Moses,  and  in  some  few  instances  after  his 
time,  before  the  universal  and  entire  corruption  had  taken 
possession  of  the  human  race.  The  corruption  of  religion 
was  gradual ;  and  even  after  some  idolatry  prevailed,  the 
true  God  was  acknowledged  and  worshipped.  He  in- 
stances the  two  Abimelechs,  in  the  times  of  Abraham 
and  Isaac ;  also  Melchizedec,  in  the  time  of  Abraham ; 
Job  and  others,  in  the  time  of  Moses.  Bishop  Horseley 
institutes  a  comparison  between  some  in  the  patriarchal 
age,  in  other  ftimilies  than  the  chosen  one  of  Abraham, 
among  whom  there  was  incipient  idolatry,  and  the  corrupt 
members  of  the  church  of  Rome,  and  affirms  that  the 
Eomanists,  who  pay  such  adoration  to  the  Virgin  Mary 
and  other  saints,  though  still  worshipping  the  Trinity, 
may  have  departed  from  the  true  faith  and  worship  as 
much  as  some  in  early  days  before  the  total  apostasy  took 
place.  During  this  period,  such  books  as  those  of  the 
Sibyls  may  have  been  preserved  and  handed  down 
through  diiferent  channels  just  as  the  Eomanists  preserve 
and  hand  down  the  scriptures,  though  departing  so  much 
in  their  worship  from  them.     This  view  of  the  Sibyl's 


ON  VIRGIL.  477 

books  is  only  an  extension  of  tlie  general  principle  of  this 
book,  which  supposes  that  in  all  the  religions  of  the  pa- 
gan world  there  was  and  is  a  remnant  of  original  revela- 
tion. Whetlier  the  bishop  has  carried  it  too  far  in  his 
application  to  the  Sibylline  verses,  I  leave  to  the  decision 
of  the  more  learned  and  investigating.  At  any  rate,  by 
general  consent,  the  expectation  of  such  a  person  as  Jesus 
Christ  was  gaining  ground  throughout  the  world  for  a 
century  before  his  appearing,  not  only  among  the  Jews 
but  in  other  countries.  Wise  men  from  the  East  were 
ready,  at  the  divine  intimation,  to  follow  the  star  which 
led  them  to  Bethlehem,  and  lay  their  tribute  at  his  feet. 
The  mouth  of  Zacharias  was  opened  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
to  say,  "  Blessed  be  the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  for  he  hath 
visited  and  redeemed  his  people,"  "  and  hath  raised  up  a 
mighty  salvation  for  us  in  the  house  of  his  servant  David." 
"  As  he  spake  by  the  mouth  of  his  holy  prophets  which 
have  been  since  the  world  began."  These  words,  "  by 
his  holy  prophets  since  the  w^orld  began,"  may  be  more 
comprehensive  than  many  have  supposed  ;  they  may  re- 
fer to  others  whose  names  are  not  among  either  the  greater 
or  lesser  prophets  of  scripture,  may  embrace  others  beside 
Noah  of  the  old  world,  and  Moses  and  others  of  the  new, 
by  whom  God  kept  alive  among  men  some  knowledge  of 
himself,  and  some  hope  of  a  Bedeemer. 


CHAPTER    XXXiy. 

OK  HORACE,  JUVENAL,  AND  PERSEUS, 

Horace  was  born  about  sixty-four  years  before  the  Chris- 
tian era.  Some  of  his  expressions  seem  to  savor  of  Epicu- 
rus. Thus,  in  one  of  his  satires,  he  says,  "  Carpe  diem, 
quam  minimum  crecluhi  postero,"  a  sentiment  condemned 
by  the  Apostle  Paul  in  that  passage  where  he  quotes  Epicu- 
rus,—"  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die."  Al- 
though he  does  not  adopt  and  defend  the  doctrine  of  the 
inspiration  of  wine  as  necessary  to  good  poetry,  yet  he 
speaks  of  it  so  as  to  gratify  wine-bibbers,  quoting  the  sen= 
timent  of  an  ancient  poet : 

"  iSTulla  placere  diu,  nee  vivere  carmina  possnnt, 
QuEe  scribnntur  aquae  potoribus." 

Homer  and  Ennius  are  represented  by  him  as  drinking 
much  wine  : 

"  Laudibns  arguitnr  vini  vinosus  ITomerus. 
Ennius  ipse  pater,  nuuquam,  nisi  potus  ad  arma 
Prosilult  dicenda." 

As  to  his  theological  sentiments  he  was  certainly  no  fa- 
vorer of  the  Jewish  religion,  although  it  is  very  probable 
that  he  only  knew  of  it  by  its  evil  report  among  the  nations, 
or  the  philosophers  who  regarded  the  Jews  as  a  supersti- 
tious and  bigoted  race  ;  thus,  in  satirizing  some  improbable 
tradition   or  opinion,  he   says,  "  Credat  Jud^us  Apella, 


HORACE,   JUVENAL,   AND   PERSEUS.  479 

non  ego."'  As  to  the  providence  of  God,  he  was  of  the 
Epicurean  belief,  that  it  was  only  on  great  occasions  that 
this  deit}'-  interfered  :  "  Nee  deus  intersit,  nisi  dignns  vin- 
dice  nodus,  inciderit."  To  flatter  Augustus,  he  says,  "Coelo 
tonantem  credidiinus  Joveni  Regnari  :  prsesens  divus  hab- 
ebitur  Augustus."  And  again,  "  Serus  in  crelum  redeas." 
In  his  ode  to  Augustus,  he  says,  ''  Divis  orte  bonis,  opti- 
me  Romule.  Gustos  gentis," 

In  a  general  way  he  advocates  piety  ;  at  any  rate  he 
places  it  on  a  footing  with  poetry  : 

"Di  mc  tuenter— Dispietas  raea, 
Et  musa  cordi  est." 

Sometimes  he  speaks  in  quite  an  orthodox  strain  of  the 
one  great  God.     Thus,  in  Book  3,  Ode  4  : 

"  Qui  mare  temperat, 
Ventoram  et  urbis,  regnaque  tristia, 
Diosque  mortalesque  turbas 
Imperio  regit  unus  aequo." 

And  yet  at  another  time  (Book  1,  Ode  5)  he  falls  into 
Ovid's  doubtful  strain  : 

"  At  O  Deornra  quidquid  in  ccelo  regit, 
Terras  et  hmnanum  genus." 

In  another  place  he  is  at  a  loss  to  know  which  of  the  gods 
must  be  invoked  in  behalf  of  Rome  in  her  distress : 

"  Quern  vocet  divum  populus  ruentia 
Imperii  rebus." 

He  falls  into  the  same  low  views  of  some  of  the  philoso- 
phers as  to  the  aids  which  Jupiter  and  the  other  gods  fur- 
nish to  mortals  in  the  pursuit  of  wisdom  and  virtue,  holding 
that  they  only  bestowed  earthly  goods  : 


480  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

"Haec  satis  est  orasse  Jovem,  qui  donat  et  aiifert, 
Det  vitam,  det  opes  ;  tequuin  mi  aniraum  isse  parabo  "— 

than  which  nothing  can  be  prouder  or  more  contrary  to 
the  spirit  of  our  religion,  which  teaches  that  we  are  not 
able  "to  think  anything  of  ourselves  as  we  ought  to  think." 
We  have  already  cpioted  the  lines  of  Horace,  recognizing 
the  existence  and  sacred  character  of  a  class  of  poets  of  an 
earlier  period  than  Komer  and  those  of  his  day,  and  who 
give  an  account  of  the  first  ages ;  but  the  fact  is  so  impor- 
tant, that  we  must  introduce  them  again  as  due  to  our  no- 
tice of  Horace  : 

"  Fuit  haec  sapientia  quondam, 
Publica  privatis  secernere,  sacra  profanis. 
Sic  honor  et  nomen  divinis  vatibus  atque 
Carminibns  venit.     Post  hos  insignis  Homerus, 
Tyrtensque  mares  animos  in  martia  bella 
Versibus  exacuit." 

The  character  of  a  priest,  as  honored  in  ancient  times,  and 
its  union  with  that  of  a  king  or  patriarch,  at  the  head  of 
his  tribe,  is  also  thus  set  forth  : 

"  Rex  olim  et  vates,  duo  maxima  numina  coell." 
"  The  two  best  gifts  God  could  on  man  bestow." 

The  doctrine  of  original  sin  is  also  declared  by  Horace  : 

"  Nam  vitiis  nemo  sine  nascitur  ;  optimus  ille  est, 
Qui  minimis  urgetur." 

So,  also,  the  desperate  depravity  of  man  : 

"  Audax  omnia  perpeti 
Gens  humana  ruit  per  vebitum  et  nefas.'" 


HORACE,   JUVENAL,    AND   PERSEUS.  481 

He  seems  also  to  recognize  the  doctrine  and  practices  of 
astrology  as  used  in  his  day : 

"Iiicredibili  modo 
Consensit  astrum." 

The  doctrine  of  fate,  or  necessity,  is  also  thus  set  forth  : 

"  JEqua  lege  necessitas 
Sortitur  insignes  et  imos." 

As  to  patriotism  and  moral  courage,  he  has  some  noble 
passages.  "  Dulce  et  decorum  est  pro  patria  mori"  has 
been  quoted  in  every  age  since  it  came  from  his  pen,  as 
an  encouragement  to  self-sacrifice  in  our  country's  cause. 
The  following  description  of  a  truly  virtuous  and  brave 
man  is  worthy  of  all  praise  : 

"  Justum  et  tenacem  proposito  virura, 
Non  civirun  ardor  prava  jubentium, 
Non  vultus  instantis  tyraaui 
Wente  quatit  solida." 

"  Nee  fulminantis  magna  manus  Jovis. 
Si  fractus  illabitur  orbis 
Impavidura  ferient  ruinfe." 

At  other  times  his  standard  of  wisdom  and  virtue  is  rather 
low.     Tims, 

"  Virtus  est  vitium  fugere,  et  sapientia  prima 
Stultitia  caruisse." 


ON   THE   LOVE   OF   MONET. 

Some  of  his  satirical  strokes  are  very  fine.  Thus,  lashing 
the  covetousness  of  the  age,  he  says, 

"  Quajrenda  pecnnia  primum  est 
Virtus  post  nummos." 
31 


482  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

ON    PEOCEASTINATION. 

Exposing  the  folly  of  procrastination,  he  says, 

"  Qui  recte  vivendi  prorogat  horam, 
Rusticus  expectat,  dum  defluat  amnis,  at  ille 
Labitur  et  labetur,  in  omne  volubilis  sevum." 

As  to  anger,  he  well  says, 

"  Ira  furor  brevis  est :  animura  rege ;  qui  nisi  paret 
Imperat.   Huncfreuis;  hunc  tu  compesse  catena." 

To  these,  a  few  other  passages  of  a  more  theological  char- 
acter may  be  added.  In  Book  1,  Ode  2,  he  alludes  to  the 
deluge.     Speaking  of  a  great  tempest — 

"  Terruit  gentes,  grave  ne  rediret. 
Sfficulum  Pyrrhoe." 

In  Book  1,  Ode  3,  the  long  lives  of  the  ancients  are  re- 
ferred to : 

"  Semotique  prius  tarda  necessitas 
Leti  corripuit  gradum." 

In  the  same  ode,  he  is  thought  by  some  to  speak  of  the 
building  of  Babel : 

"  Nil  mortalibus  arduum  est. 
Coilum  ipsum  petimus  stultitia  ;  neque 
Per  nostrum  patimur  scelus 
Iracunda  Jovem  ponere  fulmina." 

In  Ode  10    he  alludes  to  the  happiness  of  the  good  in 
Elysium : 

"  Tu  pias  laetis  animas  reponis 
Sedibus." 


HORACE,   JUVENAL,   AND   PERSEUS.  488 

In  Ode  12  he  speaks  well  of  the  Supreme  Being  under  the 
title  of  Jupiter,  called  Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus  when 
regarded  as  the  Supreme : 

"Qui  mare  et  terras,  variisque  mimdum 
Temperat  lioris : 

Unde  nil  majus  generatur  ipso,  ^ 

Nee  viget  quidquam  simile  aut  secundum." 

But  then  he  proceeds  immediately  to  say, 

"  Proxirilos  illi  tamen  occupavit 
Pallas  lionores  " — 

and  then  gives  a  list  of  the  gods,  in  a  certain  order,  Bac- 
chus coming  next  to  Romulus,  and  closing  witli  Julius 
Caesar  and  Augustus.     Of  Julius  Csesar,  he  says, 

"  Emicat  inter  omnes 
Julium  sidus,  velut  inter  ignes 
Luna  minores." 

In  Ode  34  he  seems  to  recant  the  doctrines  of  Epicurus, 
and  to  maintain  the  necessity  of  Providence,  speaking  of 
the  former  opinion  as  one  of  "  Insanientis  sapientise." 
Others  might  be  added. 

A  few  remarks  on  Juvenal  and  Persius,  and  some  pas- 
sages from  their  satires,  will  close  this  chapter. 

Juvenal  was  born  about  forty-two  years  after  the  Chris- 
tian era,  in  the  reign  of  Claudius.  His  satires  were  writ- 
ten in  the  reign  of  Trojan.  They  are  severe,  but  just.  He 
belonged  to  the  sect  of  Stoics,  but  condemned  the  liypo- 
critical  manners  of  some  of  them. 

"  Fallit  enim  vitium  specie  virtutis  et  umbra, 
Quum  sit  triste  habitu,  vultuque,  et  veste  severum." 

That  he  was  opposed  to  the  doctrines  of  Epicurus,  the  fol- 
lowing lines  from  Satire  13  show  : 


484:  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

"  Sunt  in  Fortunse  qui  casibus  omnia  ponunt 
Et  nullo  credunt  mundum  rectore  moveri ; 
Natura  volvente  vices  et  lucis  et  anni. 
Atque  ideo  intrepidi  quaecunque  altaria  tangunt. 

In  another  place  lie  says, 

"Nullum  numen  abest,  si  sit  pmdentia,  sed  te 
Nos  facimus,  Fortuna,  Deum,  coeloque  locamus." 

And  again, — 

"  Permittis  ipsis  expendere  numinibus,  quid 
Conveniat  nobis,  rebusque  sit  utile  nostris, 
Nam  pro  jucundis,  aptissima  quasque  dabunt  Dii 
Carior  est  illis  homo,  quam  sibi." 

That  Juvenal  was  utterly  disgusted  at  the  follies  of  Egyp- 
tian idolatry  is  evident  from  the  following  passage  : 

"  Qui  nescit — qualia  demens 
Egyptus  portenta  colit :  Orocodilon  adorat 
Pars  hoc.     Ilia  pavet  saturam  serpentibus  ibin. 
•     Illic  ccerulios  ;  hie  piscem  fluminis :  illic, 

Oppida  tota  canem  venerantur.     Nemo  Dianara. 
Porrum  et  ceepe  nefas  violare  et  pangere  morsu. 
O !  sanctas  gentes,  quibus  hsec  nascuntur  in  hortis 
Numina.     Lanatis  animalibus  abstinet  omnis 
Mensa.     Nefas  illic  fotum  jugulare  capillse 
Carnibus  humanis  vesci  licet." 

The  corruption  of  morals  was  so  great  in  the  time  of  Ju- 
venal, and  his  satires  are  so  pointed  and  severe,  that  it  is 
offensive  to  any  pure  mind  to  read  them.  Scaliger  con- 
sidered the  satires  as  unfit  to  be  read.  "  Se  vel  jubere, 
vel  optare,  toto  opere  abstinere  virum  probum" — "That 
lie  either  ordered  or  wished  that  a  good  man  would  abstain 
from  the  whole  work."  There  are  still  many  allusions  to 
mythological  traditions,  of  which  we  may  make  some  use. 
His  Sixth  Satire  is  considered  his  best  composition.     It  con- 


HORACE,  JUVENAL,   AND   PERSEUS.  485 

tains  a  tirade  against  women  and  marriage.  It  may  be 
that  the  female  sex  was  then  in  its  most  corrupt  state.  But 
it  coukl  not  liave  been  worse  than  that  of  the  males,  ac- 
cording to  Juvenal's  own  account.  In  this  satire  there  is 
also  allusion  to  the  different  ages  spoken  of  by  Hesiod  and 
Ovid.  The  golden  age  was  under  Saturn,  son  of  Coelus  or 
Coelum,  and  Terra.  Then  men  were  made  of  the  earth  and 
trees :  "  N^ullos  habuere  parentes."  They  lived  in  the 
trunks  of  trees,  and  in  caves,  and  upon  acorns,  and  associ- 
ated with  the  lower  animals.  Still  Astrsea,  the  goddess 
of  justice,  with  her  companions, — Modesty,  or  Purity,  and 
Truth, — presided  over  men  : 

"  Credo  pudicitiam  Saturno  rege  moratam 
In  terris." 

Then  comes  the  sylvan  age,  under  Jupiter,  when  Sat- 
urn had  been  dethroned.  Much  of  good  yet  remained, 
though  by  degrees  corruption  prevailed,  until  AstrjBa  and 
her  sisters,  Faith  and  Purity,  took  their  flight. 

"  Multa  pudieitifB  veteris  vestigia  fossaa 
Aut  aliqua  extiterint,  et  sub  Jove." 

At  length  the  iron  age  comes,  when  every  vice  is  intro- 
duced : 

"  Omne  aliud  ci'imen  mox  ferrea  protulit  setas." 

It  is  also  believed  that  reference  is  made  by  him  to  the 
deluge,  and  the  ark  in  which  Moses  kept  the  sacred  me- 
morials and  the  law.  In  Satire  14  he  alludes  contemptu- 
ously to  the  Jews,  and  shows  how  little  they  were  under- 
stood at  Home,  or  by  him.  He  represents  them  as  being 
idlers  on  account  of  the  Sabbath — adoring  only  the  clouds 
and  skies — abhorring  swine's  flesh  as  much  as  human,  and 
despising  the  Roman  laws,  and  only  observing  those  of 
Moses.  Thus : 


486  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

"  Nil  i^rfeter  nabus  et  cceli  niimen  adorant, 
Nee  distare  pntant  hnmana  carne  suillam 
Romanas  autem  soliti  contemnire  leges 
Judaicum  ediscnnt,  et  servant  ac  metuant  jus 
Tradidit  arcano  quodcunqne  volumine  Moses." 

The  charge  lie  brings  against  the  Jews  of  worsliipping  only 
the  clouds  and  the  deity  of  the  heavens,  is  equivalent  to 
this, — that  they  worshipped  none  of  the  gods  of  the  hea- 
then, but  only  Him  who  dwelt  in  the  clouds  and  heaven. 
In  Satire  6,  lines  437-9,  he  says  there  would  be  more  con- 
fidence henceforth  in  the  Chaldean  astrologers,  (a  set  of 
strolling  fortune-tellers  like  our  gipsies,)  since  the  oracles 
had  ceased, — "  Quoniam  Delphis  oracula  cessant.  Et  genus 
humanum  damnat  caligo  futura."  In  Satire  2,  he  ascribes 
this  corruption  of  morals  at  Rome  to  the  disbelief  of  a 
future  state  and  its  punishments,  saying  that  none  be- 
lieved them — "  iSTec  pueri  credunt  nisiqui  nondum  ore 
lavantur  ;  " — not  even  the  boys  believed  in  them,  except 
such  as  were  too  young  to  be  admitted  into  the  baths  by 
paying  a  piece  of  brass ;  but  he  adds — "  Sed  tu  vera  puta." 
Juvenal  also  mentions  in  various  places  the  persecutions 
to  which  the  Christians  were  exposed.  He  speaks  of  the 
"  pitched  vestments  "  in  which  they  were  burnt,  fixed  to 
the  stake,  producing  a  long  furrow  as  their  bodies  were 
dragged  along  the  dust  of  the  arena. 


PEBSIUS. 

He  was  born  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius.  His  satires  are 
obscure,  and  difiicult  to  be  understood.  His  opening  line 
deserves  that  some  notice  should  be  taken  of  him  : 

"  O  curas  hominum :  0  quantum  est  in  rebus  inane." 

What  is  it  but  a  translation  of  the  words  of  Solomon, — 


HORACE,   JUVENAL,   AND   PERSEUS.  487 

"  Yanity  of  vanities,  all  is  vanity."  He  was  a  Stoic,  and  con- 
demned the  Epicurean  motto — "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for 
to-morrow  we  die."  He  agrees  with  the  scriptures  in  op- 
posing those  who  tliought  that  because  the  deity  did  not 
inflict  immediate  punishment  on  transgression,  their  im- 
piety was  overlooked  or  forgiven.  He  addresses,  in  forcible 
language,  the  father  of  the  gods,  entreating  him  to  punish 
transgressors  by  no  other  means  than  by  making  them 
"  behold  virtue,  and  pine  away  with  grief  for  having  de- 
serted it." 

"  Virtutem  videant,  intabescantque  relicta." 

Lucan,  the  friend  and  associate  of  Perseus,  calls  the  God 
of  the  Jews  "  The  uncertain  or  unknown  God."  Prob- 
ably Perseus  thus  regarded  him. 


CHAPTEK   XXXV. 

ON   THE   PEOPER   ESTIMATE   OF    THE    PAGAN    MYTHOLOGY   AND 
THE    SALT  ABILITY    OF   THE   HEATHEN. 

Having  now  examined  tlie  various  systems  of  belief  and 
worship  among  the  heathen,  I  propose  to  consider  an  im- 
portant question  growing  out  of  such  examination,  viz : 
What  is  the  hope  we  may  entertain  of  the  salvation  of 
those  who  have  lived,  or  are  living,  under  these  systems  ? 
Although  it  is  a  most  important  truth  that  God  requires 
us  "  to  be  holy  as  he  is  holy,"  and  that  "without  holiness 
no  man  shall  see  the  Lord,"  still  the  Bible  declares 
that  none  in  the  human  form  but  the  immaculate  Son  of 
God  was  ever  free  from  error  and  sin.  The  human  mind 
is  so  constructed,  that  a  diversity  of  opinion  must  exist, 
even  on  matters  of  importance.  IS'o  one  can  undertake 
to  say  what  degree  of  error  unfits  for  heaven,  or  what 
amount  of  transgression  or  remaining  corruption  is  un- 
pardonable. This  must  be  left  to  him  who  alone  judgeth 
righteously.  If  left  to  our  own  decision,  we  sliould  be  dis- 
posed to  desire  the  salvation  of  all  men ;  to  pass  the  most 
charitable  judgment  upon  them.  But  it  is  our  part,  by 
the  light  of  scripture,  candidly  to  inquire  what  degree  of 
error  is  compatible  with  a  state  of  acceptance  with  God. 
And  since  error  of  opinion  and  viciousness  of  life  are 
closely  connected  with  each  other,  and  both  are  specified 
in  scripture  as  proofs  of  man's  unfitness  for  heaven,  we 
must  have  reference  to  each  in  forming  our  estimate  of 


PAGAN  MYTHOLOGY.  489 

the  characters  and  hopes  of  men.  TVe  may  confidently 
affirm  that  a  holy  life  and  sound  faith  belong  to  each 
other,  and  that,  without  faith  and  holiness,  it  is  impossible 
to  please  God. 

It  is  important,  therefore,  that  we  understand  what  this 
faith  and  holiness  are.  It  may  be  asked,  Have  not  the 
heathen,  generally,  a  tradition  of  some  First  Cause,  some 
ancient  God,  although  they  have  added  to  him  many  agents 
and  auxiliaries,  many  other  gods,  either  deified  heroes 
or  parts  of  nature  ?  Have  they  not  oftered  some  worship 
to  this  great  God  as  well  as  to  his  subordinates, — even 
thanksgiving  and  sacrifices, — after  the  manner  appointed 
by  God  to  our  first  parents  ?  Have  they  not  thus  ac- 
knowledged their  dependence  upon  the  great  God  as  well 
as  upon  the  lesser  deities  ?  Have  they  not  sought  to  pre- 
pare themselves  for  a  future  state  by  sacrifices  and  prayers, 
as  well  as  by  penances  and  alms  and  good  works  ?  It 
may  be  said,  that  although  they  multiplied  the  gods,  and 
greatly  perverted  the  sacrifices  and  offerings,  yet  that  the 
spirit  of  religion  was  in  them.  It  may  be  alleged,  that  as 
some  of  their  gods,  such  as  Apollo  and  Mercury,  Her- 
cules and  Jupiter  Soter,  were  regarded  as  mediators  and 
saviors,  so  we  may  hope,  notwithstanding  the  imperfection 
of  their  penitence  and  faith,  some  may  have  become  meet 
for  the  presence  of  the  true  God  hereafter.  To  this  we 
reply,  that  God  will,  no  doubt,  judge  righteously,  and  we 
may  be  sure  he  will  exclude  none  from  his  presence  who 
are  meet  for  it.  We  shall  be  the  better  able  to  decide 
this  matter  by  considering  some  passages  of  scripture 
which  have  a  bearing  on  this  subject,  since  God  will 
judge  us  by  his  word. 

That  error  has  been  gradual,  both  as  to  time  and  amount? 
all  history,  sacred  and  profane,  clearly  testifies.  Men  have 
in  all  ages  fallen  little  by  little.  "  ]N'emo  fuit  unquam  re- 
pente  turpissimus :"  "Has  nugce,  sepe  in  seria  ducun 


490  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

are  proverbs  most  true  of  the  rise  and  progress  of  relig- 
ious error,  as  of  other  things.  For  many  centuries  after 
the  deluge,  and,  doubtless,  after  the  dispersion,  when  the 
fathers  of  different  families  were  kings  and  priests,  there 
was  still  much  of  the  knowledge  and  worship  of  the  true 
God  remaining,  though  becoming  mixed  with  not  a  little 
error.  Error  was  evidently  creeping  into  the  family  of 
Terah,  the  father  of  Abraham,  when  God  commanded 
them  to  remove  from  Chaldea  to  Canaan.  Nevertheless, 
we  must  believe  they  were  still  worshippers  of  the  true 
God,  and  that  there  were  others  of  the  same  character, 
though  idolatry  was  rapidly  increasing.  God  now  estab- 
lished his  covenant  with  Abraham,  revealing  himself 
anew  to  him.  "When  Abraham  went  into  Egypt,  he 
found  in  King  Abimelech  one  who  feared  God.  Doubt- 
less the  true  God  was  then  known  in  Egypt,  though  idola- 
try may  have  been  progressing.  Even  in  Canaan  Abra- 
ham found  a  Melchisedec,  priest  of  the  most  high  God, 
of  so  high  an  order  that  he  paid  tithes  to  him. 

At  a  later  period,  when  Joseph  went  into  Egypt,  al- 
though the  worship  of  the  sun  was  established  there,  yet, 
from  the  fact  that  he  married  a  daughter  of  the  j^riest  of 
the  sun,  and  from  the  respect  shown  to  Joseph  and  the 
God  of  Joseph  by  Pharaoh  and  his  people,  we  must  sup- 
pose that  the  adoration  of  the  sun  was  in  an  incipient 
state,  and  was  in  connection  with,  and  subordinate  to,  the 
worship  of  Jehovah  as  the  God  of  tlie  sun  and  of  the 
hosts  of  heaven.  More  than  two  hundred  years  after  this, 
when  Moses,  the  nursling  of  Egyptian  women  who  feared 
God,  was  raised  up  to  lead  the  children  of  Israel  out  of 
Egypt,  now  tilled  with  idolatry,  the  language  of  Pharaoh 
is  such  as  to  show  that  he  admitted  the  existence  and 
power  of  the  God  of  Moses,  though  his  heart  was  hard- 
ened against  him. 

At  this  time  there  dwelt  in  the  land  of  Midian,  Jethro, 


PAGAN  MYTHOLOGY.  491 

whose  daughter  Moses  married,  and  who  was  a  priest  of 
the  true  God.  Of  course  there  were  worshippers  to  whom 
he  ministered. 

As  evidence  of  the  existence  of  some  who  worshipped 
the  true  God  at  this  time  in  the  countries  around,  we 
may  refer  to  righteous  Job,  who  is  supposed  to  have 
lived  in  the  time  of  Moses,  and  in  Arabia,  perhaps  not 
far  distant  from  Mount  Sinai.  We  may  also  see  a  proof 
of  the  estimate  in  which  the  God  of  Israel  was  held 
even  by  a  wicked  and  covetous  man, — the  prophet  Ba- 
laam, in  the  land  of  Moab,  just  before  the  Israelites  en- 
tered the  promised  land.  He  would  fain,  for  hire,  have 
cursed  Israel,  but  was  forced  to  bless  him  altogether. 
We  may  even  go  forward  some  hundreds  of  years  to  the 
time  of  Daniel  the  prophet,  and  for  some  hundreds  of 
miles  to  the  court  of  Darius  the  Persian,  and  find  proof 
that  there  was  still  some  knowledge  of  the  true  God  in 
other  nations  besides  that  of  Israel.  The  interesting  his- 
tory of  Daniel  at  Babylon  and  in  Persia  during  the  reigns 
of  ^Nebuchadnezzar  and  Belshazzar,  Darius  and  Cyrus, 
shows  soine  public  recognition  of  Jehovah  as  the  true 
God.  Let  the  decree  of  Darius  suffice  :  "  Then  king  Da- 
rius wrote  unto  all  people,  nations,  and  languages,  that 
dwelt  on  all  the  earth.  Peace  be  multiplied  unto  you :  I 
make  a  decree  that  in  every  division  of  my  kingdom  men 
tremble  and  fear  before  the  God  of  Daniel,  for  he  is  the 
living  God  and  steadfast  for  ever,  and  his  kingdom  that 
which  shall  not  be  destroyed,  and  his  dominion  shall  be 
even  unto  the  end.  He  delivereth  and  rescueth,  he  work- 
eth  signs  and  wonders  in  heaven  and  in  earth,  who  hath 
delivered  Daniel  from  the  power  of  the  lions."  How  far 
this  decree  took  effect  in  restraining  idolatry  we  cannot 
say.  It  was  followed  by  the  accession  of  Cyrus  to  the 
throne  of  Persia,  who  was  called  "  The  Lord's  anointed," 
and  who  also  acknowledged  the  God  of  Daniel.     These 


492  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

notices  of  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God  in  the  nations 
around  the  descendants  of  Abraham,  and  kept  to  it,  per- 
haps, by  means  of  intercourse  with  them,  are  deeply  in- 
teresting, and  have  some  bearing  on  the  question  before 
us,  giving  good  grounds  of  hope  for  the  salvation  of  some 
in  those  times  and  countries.  Let  us  now  see  how  the 
knowledge  and  worship  of  Jehovah  fared  in  the  promised 
land,  from  the  time  of  the  entrance  of  the  chosen  people 
into  it  until  the  Babylonish  captivity,  at  which  time,  and 
not  before,  they  ceased  from  their  relapses  into  idolatry, 
or  the  intermingling  the  worship  of  Jehovah  with  the 
worship  of  the  gods  of  the  heathen.  From  the  language 
of  God  in  regard  to  these,  and  from  his  dealings  with  the 
Israelites  on  account  of  their  departure  from  the  true  faith 
and  worship,  we  may  understand  God's  will  and  mind 
with  respect  to  the  question  we  are  discussing. 

In  evidence  of  God's  hatred  of  all  idolatry,  he  declares 
himself,  from  Mount  Sinai,  amid  the  awful  scenes  of  his 
appearing  there,  to  be  a  "jealous  God,"  in  connection  with 
his  prohibition  of  any  images  or  likenesses  of  things  in 
earth,  sea,  and  heavens. 

Instead  of  a  noble,  philosophic  disregard  of  trifles,  as 
some  esteem  them,  and  allowing  a  social  liberality  to- 
ward all  other  nations  as  to  religious  observances,  a  lead- 
ing feature  in  the  Jewish  dispensation  is  the  endeavor  to 
keep  them  distinct  from  all  others.  Many  seemingly 
trivial  prohibitions,  such  as  not  sowing  divers  seeds,  and 
wearing  mixed  clothes  of  woollen  and  linen,  and  yoking 
the  ox  and  ass  together,  were  appointed  only  to  make 
them  diifer  from  the  other  nations  who  used  such  things 
in  their  worship.  For  this,  among  other  reasons,  did  God 
make  them  wander  for  forty  years  in  a  strange  country, 
among  enemies,  thus  to  wean  thern  from  idolatry.  Such 
is  the  proneness  of  man  to  idolatry,  that,  even  in  the 
days  of  the  apostles,  the  last  surviving  one  of  them  had 


PAGAN   MYTHOLOGY.  493 

need  to  sa}',  "  Little  children,  keep  yourselves  from  idols," 
whicli,  I  doubt  not,  was  designed  to  be  received  in  the 
most  literal  manner.  Little  children, — that  is,  poor,  weak, 
silly  children, — keep  yourselves  from  worshipping  idols,  to 
which  you  are  continually  tempted,  either  by  the  heathen 
or  by  paganized-  Christians,  is  the  trne  sense  of  the  pas- 
sage, though  it  may  be  applied  to  other  things.  Remem- 
bering the  adoration  of  the  hosts  of  heaven,  and  well 
knowing  that  the  same  was  practised  in  Canaan,  God 
warns  the  Israelites  against  any  such  worship,  however 
innocent  some  might  deem  it,  especially  in  connection 
with  and  in  subordination  to  the  higher  worship  of  Jeho- 
rah.  In  the  twenty-third  chapter  of  Exodus,  God  says  to 
them,  "  In  all  things  that  I  have  said  unto  you,  be  circum- 
spect, and  make  no  mention  of  the  name  of  other  gods, 
neither  let  it  be  heard  out  of  thy  mouth."  In  the  twenty- 
seventh  chapter  of  the  book  of  Deuteronomy  it  is  written, 
"Cursed  be  the  man  that  maketh  any  graven  or  molten 
image,  an  abomination  unto  the  Lord,  tlie  work  of  the 
hands  of  the  craftsmen,  and  putteth  it  in  a  secret  place  ; 
and  all  the  people  shall  say,  Amen."  Death  was  the 
penalty.* 

*  What  we  now  affirm,  says  an  eminent  writer,  rests  on  no  doubtful  author- 
ity. It  is  a  deep  moral  truth,  stamped  with  the  signet  of  heaven,  and  confirmed 
by  the  whole  course  of  divine  Providence  for  one  thousand  five  hundred  j-ears. 
When  the  Most  High  would  preserve  a  national  witness  to  himself  in  the  midst 
of  the  idolatrous  heathen,  what  course  did  Infinite  Wisdom  pursue?  Did  he 
leave  the  chosen  seed  exposed  to  daily  and  hourly  contact  with  those  systems 
of  idolatry?  'No;  he  placed  a  double  wall  of  separation  between  them.  He 
placed  them  in  a  separate  land,  from  which  he  commanded  every  trace  of  those 
accursed  idols  to  be  done  away.  He  forbade  the  very  mention  of  their  names. 
He  placed  between  them  the  barrier  of  a  national  antipathy  so  stern,  the  mem- 
ory of  a  judgment  so  terrible,  as  to  be  the  stumbling-block  of  our  sentimental 
philosophers,  who  cannot  conceive  that  "  the  wrathful  Jehovah  of  the  Jews," 
as  Goethe  profanely  styles  him,  can  be  the  same  with  "  the  Father  of  mercies" 
and  "the  God  of  all  grace"  whom  the  New  Testament  reveals.  And  yet,  ia 
spite  of  these  prohibitions,  and  a  system  of  laws  made  to  converge  with  divine 
wisdom  on  this  one  great  object,  what  does  the  Jewish  history  reveal  to  us  but 
a  scries  of  lapses  into  idolatry,  followed  each  in  its  turn  by  some  new  and  se- 


494  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

Just  before  his  death,  Moses,  in  his  noble  song  setting 
forth  the  perfection  of  God,  represents  him  as  having  no 
fellowship  or  partnership  with  other  gods,  in  bringing 
the  children  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt :  "  The  Lord  alone 
did  lead  him,  and  there  was  no  strange  god  with  him. 
I,  even  I,  am  He  ;  there  is  no  strange  god  with  me."  Thus 
did  God  protest  against  any  connivance  at,  and  apology 
for,  the  adulteration  of  his  worship.  Moreover,  he  ex- 
pressly commanded  the  destruction  or  banishment  of  all 
the  Canaanites  through  fear  of  such  adulteration. 

From  the  entrance  of  Joshua  into  Canaan,  we  find  noth- 
ing but  warnings  against  idolatry,  and  not  a  hint  of  any 
connivance  or  winking  at  it,  as  thongh  these  gods  might 
be  worshipped  in  connection  wath  Jehovah.  After  com- 
manding them  to  put  away  all  the  gods  of  Chaldea  and 
Egypt,  from  whence  their  fathers  had  come,  Joshua  says, 
(in  allusion  to  the  division  of  the  gods  into  celestial  and 
terrestrial,)  "  For  the  Lord  your  God,  he  is  God  in  heaven 
above,  and  in  the  earth  beneath."  During  the  lifetime  of 
Joshua,  and  while  the  elders  lived  who  remembered  him, 
the  Israelites  served  the  Lord,  driving  out  the  Canaanites  as 
they^vere  commanded.  After  this  they  began  to  take  the 
daughters  of  the  Canaanites  that  were  left  in  the  land  for 
their  wives,  and  gave  their  daughters  to  the  Canaanitish 
men  for  wives,  and  served  their  gods.  From  this  to  the 
time  of  Solomon  the  history  of  Israel  is  a  history  of  its 
partial  and  temporary  relapses  into  idolatry,  and  of  God's 
judgments  upon  them  for  the  same.  How  often  do  we 
read  that  the  anger  of  the  Lord  was  hot  against  Israel  on 
account  of  their  idolatries,  and  that  he  sold  them  into  cap- 
tivity to  the  nations  around  for  the  same  !     Other  crimes 

vere  infliction  of  divine  judgment?"  Protestants  ought  carefully  to  remember 
this  when  they  would  connive  at  or  imitate  any  of  those  customs  among  Ro- 
manists, by  which  undue  veneration  for  saints  and  relics  has  been  introduced 
among  them. 


PAGAN  MYTHOLOGY.  495 

are  scarcely  mentioned  by  comparison  with  tliese.  From 
time  to  time  God  raised  up  deliverers  for  them,  and  they 
returned  to  the  country  and  his  worship. 

During  the  reigns  of  Saul  and  David,  and  until  the  close 
of  Solomon's,  the  people  of  Israel  seem  to  have  been  true 
to  the  Lord  their  God,  and  their  kingdom  reached  its 
highest  perfection  and  prosperity.  We  then  come  to  a 
dark,  melancholy,  and  mysterious  passage  in  the  history 
of  man,  viz.,  Solomon's  defection.  The  sad  account  of  it 
is  faithfully  stated. 

That  Solomon  could  have  been  in  a  state  of  salvation 
while  his  heart  was  cleaving  in  love  to  so  man}'-  strange 
wives,  forbidden  to  him  by  God,  and  while  it  was  turned 
away  from  the  Lord  by  other  gods,  while  establishing  the 
abominations  of  idolatry  in  the  very  sight  of  the  temple, 
is  not  for  a  moment  to  be  thought  of.  If  it  were  so,  no 
bounds  could  be  set  to  the  merc}^  of  God  ;  then  all  idola- 
ters must  be  saved.  Only  on  the  repentance  and  reforma- 
tion of  Solomon  can  such  a  hope  be  founded.  As  might 
be  expected,  Rehoboam  his  son  followed  in  his  footsteps, 
and  the  kingdom  was  rent  in  twain. 

A  succession  of  kings  doing  good  or  evil  in  the  sight 
of  the  Lord  now  followed,  in  both  parts  of  the  kingdom. 
They  found  favor  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  or  the  Lord  was 
angry  with  them  and  punished  them,  just  in  proportion 
as  they  were  zealous  in  banishing  or  promoting  idolatry. 
Partial  praise  is  sometimes  bestowed,  but  the  same  is 
ever  modified  by  the  declaration  that  his  heart  was  not 
perfect  or  right  before  the  Lord,  because  he  did  not  pull 
down  or  destroy  every  vestig*  of  idolatry.  So  far  was 
God  from  the  latitudinarian  charity  which  would  embrace 
all  the  religions  of  earth  as  acceptable  to  him. 

But  the  measure  of  Judah's  iniquity  was  full.  Forty 
years'  bondage  to  the  Philistines,  besides  many  smaller 
periods  of  subjection  to  other  nations,  and  numerous  other 


496  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

judgments,  were  insufficient  to  cure  the  people  of  their 
obstinate  and  strong  propensity  to  idolatr3^  A  seventy- 
years'  captivity  in  Babylon  was  awaiting  him.  In  the 
reign  of  Jehoachim,  Nebuchadnezzar  came  with  a  large 
army  and  carried  them  away  into  a  strange  land,  where 
by  the  waters  of  Babylon  they  and  their  children  sat  down, 
and  wept  at  the  remembrance  of  Zion. 

And  now,  after  this  history  of  God's  judgments  upon  his 
chosen  people  for  conniving  at  and  partaking  of  the  idol- 
atries of  the  heatlien  without  entirely  renouncing  Jeho- 
vah as  the  God  of  Israel,  will  any  one  maintain,  with  the 
philosophers  and  poets  and  rulers  of  Greece,  Home,  and 
other  places,  that  the  worship  of  the  gods  was  worthy  of 
encouragement ;  that  the  essential  elements  of  all  religious 
systems  were  the  same,  so  that  Jehovah  will  accept  as 
offered  to  himself  all  the  homage  paid  to  the  heathen  dei- 
ties ?  Might  we  not  hold  and  maintain,  with  some,  that 
to  yield  to  the  passions  and  appetites  that  belong  to  our 
fallen  nature,  and  grant  them  unrestrained  indulgence  so 
as  to  riot  in  lust,  intemperance,  revenge,  and  other  vices, 
is  worshipping  the  god  of  nature,  who  made  us  with  these 
several  propensities?  Some  have  so  held  and  acted. 
But  listen  to  the  language  of  God  as  to  all  idolatries : 
"  Be  astonished,  ye  nations,  at  this,  and  be  ye  horribly 
afraid,  and  be  ye  very  desolate,  saith  the  Lord  ;  for  ray 
people  have  committed  two  evils :  they  have  forsaken  me, 
the  fountain  of  living  waters,  and  hewed  them  out  cisterns, 
broken  cisterns,  which  can  hold  no  water."  Can  any 
thing  be  more  expressive  of  the  utter  unprofitableness  and 
sinfulness  of  all  pagan  idolatry  ?  God  cannot  at  one  and 
the  same  time  thus  denounce  it,  and  yet  accept  and  re- 
ward it. 

Is  there  then  no  salvation  to  any  of  the  human  race, 
except  to  those  among  Jews  and  Christians,  who,  through 
the  scriptures,  have  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God  and  of 


PAGAN  MYTHOLOGY.  497 

his  Son  Jesus  Christ  ?  We  have  ah-eatly  spoken  of  tliose 
scattered  abroad  through  the  earth  after  the  dehige,  and 
before  the  time  of  Moses,  who  retained  the  knowledge  and 
worship  of  God,  and  of  those  who,  after  his  time,  may  in 
their  dispersion  have  retained  a  sufficiency  of  the  truth 
for  salvation.*  But  is  there  no  hope  for  others  who,  in 
the  progress  of  time,  have  become  more  and  more  in- 
volved in  idolatry  ?  To  this  it  is  answered,  that  in  all  ages 
and  countries,  among  the  most  savage  and  the  most  civil- 
ized, some  knowledge  of  the  First  Cause,  the  Great  Spirit, 
the  Creator  of  all  things,  has  existed  ;  and  some  knowledge 
of  the  fall  and  corruption  of  man,  the  need  of  atonement 
by  sacrifice,  the  deluge,  a  future  state,  and  of  the  neces- 
sity of  some  divine  assistance.  All  these  have  been  held, 
though  a  fearful  mixture  of  error  has  been  connected  with 
their  belief.  The  scriptures  and  reason  unite  in  declaring 
that  truth  and  not  error  is  the  divine  instrument  of  im- 
proving and  sanctifying  the  souls  of  men.  Our  Lord's  last 
prayer  was,  "  Sanctify  them  through  thy  truth  :  thy  word 
is  truth." 

It  were  a  reproach  to  our  j\Iaker  to  suppose  that  he 
should  have  so  constructed  his  chief  work  on  earth,  as  that 
falsehood  should  be  the  means  of  its  purification  and  ex- 
altation, instead  of,  or  as  well  as,  truth,  and  that  the  wor- 
ship of  those  who  are  no-gods  should  be  as  acceptable  as  the 

*  111  proof  of  the  greater  comprehensiveness  of  the  Jewish  church  than  some 
have  ascribed  to  it,  and  the  greater  probability  that  there  were  devout  persons 
in  the  nations  around,  we  quote  tlie  following  passage  from  Hardwic,  vol.  iii., 
p.  177. 

"  These,  for  instance,  like  the  Kenites,  or  the  Rechabites,  retaining  the  ances- 
tral faith  in  one  living  God,  without  conforming  to  the  ritual  law  of  JIoscs,  lived 
for  centuries  on  terms  of  amity  with  Israel,  and  were  sheltered  near  the  sanc- 
tuary of  God.  The  psalmist  and  the  prophet  are  both  heard  exulting  in  the 
thought  that  Zion  was  the  home  and  mother  city  not  of  Israel  only,  but  of  the 
Gentiles  also.  At  the  dedication  of  the  temple  Solomon  did  not  forget  the 
strangers  coming  out  of  far  countries  to  worship  in  Jerusalem.  They  also  were 
embraced  within  the  circle  of  his  prayer — '  that  all  tlie  people  of  the  earth  may 
know  thy  name,  to  fear  thee,  as  do  thy  people,  Israel.'  " 

32 


498  THE   BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

worship  of  himself,  tlie  true  God.     It  is  only  in  proportion 
as  we  know  and  serve  the  true  God,  that  we  are  accepted. 

In  falsehood  there  is  no  virtue  to  purify  ;  but  in  the  hem 
of  the  garment  of  truth  there  is  virtue,  by  the  power  of 
Him  who  is  truth  itself. 

All  the  prayers  and  sacrifices  in  the  world  to  all  the  in- 
numerable objects  in  nature,  and  deified  heroes,  are  utterly 
unavailing.  They  cannot  hear  or  answer  our  prayers. 
Prayers  are  only  acceptable  so  far  as  they  are  ofifered  up 
to  the  Great  Spirit.  We  would  liken  prayers  oflfered  up 
to  the  no-gods  of  the  heathen,  to  the  prayers  and  homage 
paid  to  the  Yirgin  Mary  and  the  saints  of  the  Romish 
calendar.  No  grace  comes  from  God  in  answer  to  such 
prayers  ;  they  are  an  abomination  to  him  ;  and  yet  pious 
Komanists  are  saved  through  the  truth  which  they  be- 
lieve, and  the  prayers  they  offer  up  to  the  IIolj^  Trinity. 
So  among  Protestants,  we  often  find  the  most  idle  and 
silly  methods  adopted  for  promoting  conversion.  Now, 
though  true  conversion  does  often  take  place  in  connection 
with  these,  yet  it  is  not  to  be  ascribed  to  these  acts,  but 
to  God's  word,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  blessing  it,  notwith- 
standing the  follies  and  infirmities  of  men.  It  is  impos- 
sible for  us  to  determine  what  efl:ect  the^ Spirit  of  God  may 
liave  produced  on  the  hearts  of  some  pagans  by  the  in- 
strumentality of  remaining  traditions  in  which  are  to  be 
found  some  correct  views  of  himself,  yet  we  must  not 
suppose  that  he  who  is  called  the  Spirit  of  Truth  would 
make  use  of  the  instrumentality  of  him  who  is  styled  the 
father  of  lies,  to  do  his  good  woi'k  in  the  hearts  of  men. 
Some  of  these  things  may,  from  their  resemblance  to  orig- 
inal truth,  bear  testimony  to  it,  but  only  as  the  shadow 
testifies  to  the  substance,  though  it  be  not  the  substance 
itself.  It  has  been  justly  remarked,  that  "Error  seldom 
walks  abroad  in  her  own  raiment.  She  always  borrows 
something  of  truth  to  make  her  more  agreeable." 


PAGAN   MYTHOLOGY.  499 

We  may  tlins  see  how  God  could  save  those  heathen 
■who  are  without  haw,  either  tlie  law  of  Christ  or  of  Moses, 
by  means  of  the  remaining  light  handed  down  b}'  tradi- 
tion, which  becomes  a  law  written  in  the  hearts  of  men 
by  the  S})irit  of  God.  Thus  do  we  believe  that  thei'e  have 
been  devout  men  in  every  age — such  as  Thales,  Pythag- 
oras, Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle,  Plutarch,  Cicero,  Confu- 
sius,  Zoroaster  ;  also,  some  of  the  Magi  and  Druids,  who, 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  through  the  instrumentality  of  sucli 
truths  as  they  held,  have  been  sanctified  so  as  to  be  made 
meet  for  the  happiness  purchased  for  the  holy  by  means 
of  him  who  tasted  death  for  all  men.  These  men  did 
indeed  hold  some  things  and  do  some  things  which  the 
scriptures  condemn,  and  did  encourage,  if  not  for  them- 
selves, yet  for  others,  some  abominable  idolatries.  They 
were,  however,  not  sanctified  and  saved  by  tliese  things, 
but  in  spite  of  them.  Through  the  mercy  of  God  and  by 
the  power  of  his  Spirit  they  were  made  humble  and  de- 
vout, by  the  instrumentality  of  that  truth  which  thoy  held. 
Although  it  is  most  true  that  there  is  no  other  name  given 
among  men  except  that  of  Jesus  Christ,  whereby  we  can 
be  saved,  and  that  no  blessing  comes  down  from  heaven 
to  men  but  through  this  channel,  yet  it  is  not  necessary 
to  salvation  that  the  Saviour,  in  all  his  power  and  fulness, 
should  be  known  in  order  to  salvation ;  else,  where  is  the 
hope  of  the  patriarchs  and  the  Jews,  who  only  saw  him 
dimly  through  the  types  and  prophecies ;  or,  for  children 
dying  in  infancy  ? 

But  now  a  practical  question  arises,  which  has  ever 
been  a  source  of  painful  thought  to  many :  "What  is  the 
probability  that  the  heathen,  in  any  considerable  numbers, 
either  of  ancient  or  modern  days,  philosophers  or  people, 
shall  thus  be  saved  ?  The  scripture  is  the  only  book  to 
which  we  can  resort  for  an  answer  to  this  question,  but 
this  does  not  give  us  such  a  one  as  many  might  ask  or 


500  THE   BIBLE  AND  THE   CLASSICS. 

wish.    We  have  seen  what  the  Old  Testament  says,  as  to 
the  heathen  in  the  days  of  the  prophets  of  Israel,  from 
Moses  to  Christ,  and  how  dreadful  was  the  moral  condition 
of  the  world  under  the  influence  of  paganism,  and  how 
awful  the  denunciations  of  Jehovah  against  it.     Let  us  see 
what  the  New  Testament  says  of  the  philosophers  as  well 
as  people  of  the  Christian  era.    St.  Paul,  in  his  lirst  chapter 
of  the  Epistle  to   the  Romans,  has  the  philosophers  of 
Greece  and  Rome  evidently  in  his  mind.     He  speaks  of 
them  as  "  holding  the  truth  in  unrighteousness,"  by  which 
it  is  supposed  that  he  not  only  charges  them  with  un- 
righteousness, but  as  concealing  such  truth  as  they  had 
from  others,  as  that  which  was  too  high  for  them  ;  and 
such,  we  know,  was  the    practice  of  the   philosophers. 
God  had  showed   to    them  his  eternal  power  and  god- 
head, not  only  by  the  remainder  of  original  revelation, 
but  by  blessing  their  inquiries  into  his  invisible  things, 
from  the   foundation  of  the  world,  which  were   clearly 
seen  and  understood  by  the  things  that  are  made :  but 
they  did  not  like  to  retain  God  in  their  knowledge,  and 
were  without  excuse  ;  for  when  they  knew  God,  they  glo- 
rified him  not  as  God,  neither  were  thankful,  but  became 
"  vain  in  their  imaginations,  and  their  foolish  hearts  were 
darkened.      Professing  themselves  to  be  wise,  they  be- 
came fools,  and  changed  the  glory  of  the  incorruptible 
God  into  an  image  like  unto  corruptible  men,  and  to  birds, 
and  four-footed  beasts,  and  creeping  things."     Such  was 
the  worship  that  they  encouraged   and  even   practised. 
Wherefore  God  in  judgment  gave  them  over  to  a  repro- 
bate mind,  to  all  uncleanness,  and  to  every  abomination. 
This  was  the  general  character  of  philosophers  and  people. 
The  very  mysteries  which  were  designed,  at  first,  to  pre- 
serve the  knowledge  of  original  truth,  and  the  practice  of 
original  holiness,  had  become  so  corrupt  that  the  public 
authorities  put  them  down  as  nuisances.     If  there  were 


PAGAN  MYTIIOLOGT.  501 

any  devout  men  among  them,  tlioy  were  only  exceptions 
to  the  general  rule. 

When,  therefore,  we  consider  the  testimony  of  the  scrip- 
tures, from  first  to  last,  and  that  of  universal  history  as  to 
the  religious  opinions  and  morals  and  worship  of  the 
heathen,  where  is  our  hope  for  any  considerable  number 
of  them  from  a  God  of  holiness  ?  and  has  not  that  testi- 
mony continued  the  same  all  the  world  over  to  the  present 
time  ?  From  the  days  of  Moses  to  those  of  St,  Paul,  the 
constant  language  of  God  has  been,  "  Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am 
holy,"  showing  the  necessity  of  inculcating  holiness  on 
men,  from  the  fact  that  God  is  holy  and  men  unholy. 
Many  doubtless  would  say,  "  Surely,  if  there  be  one  attri- 
bute which  all  men  would  unite  in  ascribing  to  the  deity, 
it  must  be  holiness  ;"  and  yet,  if  wa  look  through  the  whole 
heathen  mythology,  we  find  it  to  be  the  one  most  neglect- 
ed. Even  in  the  time  of  Moses  it  was  necessary  to  begin, 
as  it  were,  a  great  way  off,  in  order  to  raise  the  minds  of 
men  to  this  height.  The  ritual  of  Moses  was  filled  with 
ablutions,  that  the  mind  might  be  led  on  by  degrees  to  just 
views  of  the  purity  of  God.  We  may  realize  the  ditfer- 
ence  between  Jehovah  and  tlie  gods  of  the  heathen,  by 
])utting  some  of  the  words  of  Jehovah  into  their  mouths. 
What  should  wo  think  of  the  lewd  and  adulterous  Jupiter, 
of  Homer  and  Virgil,  thus  addressing  the  children  of  men 
from  Mount  Ida,  or  Olj'mpus — "Be ye  holy,  as  I  am  holy !" 
or  of  Yenus,  exhorting  to  chaste  conversation  and  virgin 
purity  ;  or  of  Bacchus,  calling  on  young  men  to  be  sober- 
minded,  and  not  to  look  on  the  wine  when  it  is  red  in  the 
cup  ;  or  of  a  priest  of  Moloch,  saying,  "  Blessed  are  the 
peacemakers  ;"  or  of  Mercury,  saying,  "  Steal  no  more,  but 
rather  labor  with  your  own  hands  ;"  or  of  the  Furies,  coun- 
selliug  to  gentleness,  meekness,  and  love  ? 

Which  of  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  grows  out  of  the  ex- 
ample of  the  heathen  gods,  or  from  the  genius  of  their  re- 


502  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

ligion  ?  If  it  be  true  of  every  priesthood  of  the  earth, 
"  Like  priest  like  people,"  how  much  more  "  Like  gods 
like  worshippers !" 

I  conclude  by  applying  this  subject  to  an  excuse  some- 
times made  for  indifference  to  one  of  the  most  interesting 
and  important  objects  now  proposed  to  the  zeal  and  lib- 
erality of  Christians.  The  last  command  of  our  Lord  to  his 
apostles  was,  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the 
gospel  to  every  creature."  This  could  not  be  done  with- 
out the  greatest  perils  and  sacrifices,  oftentimes  martyr- 
dom itself.  If,  as  some  maintain,  a  God  of  jnstice  must 
and  does  give  to  every  human  being  precisely  the  same 
opportunity  and  help  for  salvation,  then  why  all  this 
waste  of  life  and  property  on  the  heathen  ?  Let  him  who 
believes  in  the  holiness  of  God  only  inquire  what  the 
heathen  ever  have  been  and  still  are  in  their  tempers  and 
lives,  and  then  ask  whether  the  religion  of  Christ  ought 
not,  at  any  cost  and  labor,  to  be  given  to  these  poor  de- 
graded, benighted  beings,  who  are,  comparatively  speak- 
ing at  least,  "  without  God  and  without  hope  in  the 
world." 

Although  the  follow^iug  passage  from  Professor  Ilardwic 
is  most  discouraging  as  to  the  philosophers  and  people 
living  after  paganism  became  establislied,  it  does  not  mil- 
itate against  the  hopeful  view  we  have  presented  of  the 
case  of  those  under  the  earlier  and  more  partial  corrup- 
tions of  religion.  He  is  a  cautious  and  therefore  a  safe 
writer,  and  seems  to  consider  the  sacred  books  of  some  of 
the  pagan  nations  as  not  yet  sufiiciently  examined.  He 
says,  "  If  it  be  found  hereafter,  on  a  strict  examination  of 
their  sacred  books  and  other  ancient  documents,  that 
nearly  all  the  heathen  systems  were  defective  in  those 
very  points  which  form  the  leading  characteristics  of  re- 
vealed religion  ;  if  the  general  tendency  of  pagan  thought 
was,  in  philosophers,  to  pantheism,  or  the  worship  of  ua- 


PAGAN  MYTHOLOGY.  503 

twre  as  a  whole,  and  in  the  many  to  polytheism,  or  the 
deification  of  particular  energies  of  nature  ;  if  sin  was 
then  regarded  as  eternal  and  necessary,  or  in  other 
cases  as  unreal,  notwithstanding  those  frequent  reclama- 
tions of  the  moral  consciousness  that  drove  men  to  devise 
new  rites  of  worship,  and  to  rear  new  altars  in  honor  of 
the  '  unknown '  divinity ;  if,  being  thus  '  without  God  in 
the  world,'  the  heathen  were  also  '  without  hope,'  the  vic- 
tims, in  their  moments  of  distracting  doubts,  of  abject 
terror  and  of  withering  desperation,  we  may  thence  de- 
rive not  only  a  fresh  stock  of  motives  for  disseminating 
truths  that  we  possess,  but  special  reasons  for  abstaining 
from  all  heathenish  speculations,  and  for  listening  with 
more  docile  spirits  to  tiie  Oracles  of  God," 


CHAPTEE    XXXVI. 

ON  THE    QUESTION   WHETHER   THE   SAVAGE  OK  CIVILIZED   STATE 
WAS   THE   ORIGINAL   AND   NATURAL    STATE   OF  MAN. 

In  oiir  first  chapter  we  expressed  the  conviction  that 
man,  as  coming  from  his  Maker's  liands,  was  highly  en- 
dowed; that  according  to  the  testimony  of  scripture  and  all 
tradition,  he  was  not  only  good,  but  veiy  good,  perfect  in 
his  kind,  made  after  the  image  of  God,  though  that  image 
was  faint  and  imperfect.  Infidelity  has  sought  to  dispar- 
age the  workmanship  of  God,  so  far  as  man  is  concerned, 
and  to  represent  our  first  parents  as  only  full-grown  in- 
fants, and  that  all  the  savages  of  earth  ever  have  been, 
and  still  are,  in  a  state  nearest  to  the  natural  and  original 
one ;  whereas,  all  the  civilized  nations  have  become  so  by 
their  own  power  of  improvement  on  the  condition  in  which 
God  placed  the  first  of  the  human  race.  If  such  be  the 
case,  then  Nvas  man  at  first,  by  comparison  with  the  other 
animals,  the  inferior,  not  the  superior,  and  rather  a  reproach 
than  an  honor  to  his  Maker,  for  all  other  animals  almost  at 
once  attain  to  the  perfection  of  their  natures  by  the  power 
of  instinct  and  the  rapid  development  of  their  powers ; 
whereas,  man,  by  slow  degrees  and  after  many  generations, 
attains  to  his  highest  state.  If  the  savage  state  be  the  most 
natural,  then  we  give  countenance  to  the  theory  of  those 
who  would  degrade  the  race  of  man  by  representing  him 
as  closely  allied  to  the  monkey  or  orang-outang,  or  being 
only  a  higher  development  of  that  animal.     When  we 


THE   ORIGINAL   STATE   OF   MAN.  [505 

think  ot  the  inhabitants  of  Van  Dieman's  Land,  ot  Terra 
del  Fnego,  the  Esquimaux,  the  Hottentots,  the  Bushmen 
near  the  Cape  ot"  Good  Hope, — of  their  disparaging  ap- 
pearance, of  their  savage,  ferocious,  and  unnatural  charac- 
ters,— we  may  well  shrink  from  the  idea  and  belief  that 
this  was  the  original  state  of  man,  or  one  necessarily  and 
rapidly  resulting  from  it.  And  yet  Mr.  Burnet — after- 
wards Lord  Monboddo,  who  says  he  "  writes  for  men  of 
liberal  thoughts  and  more  than  common  learning" — that  is, 
for  infidels — tells  us  "  The  orang-outangs  are  proved  to  be 
of  our  sjiecies  by  marks  of  humanity  that  ai'e  incontesta- 
ble." Beattie,  inliis  "Theory  of  Language,"  and  Dr.  Samuel 
Stanhope  Smith,  of  Princeton,  in  his  work  on  the  "  Color 
of  the  Human  Kace,"  have  exposed  in  a  masterly  manner 
this  work  of  Monboddo,  and  also  the  opinions  of  Ferguson 
and  Robertson,  which  are  not  much  better.  Perhaps  Mon- 
boddo's  theory  deserves  no  better  notice  than  that  of  Dr. 
Johnson,  "Of  standing  facts,"  he  says,  "there  ought  to 
be  no  controversy  ;  if  there  are  men  with  tails,  catch  an 
homo  ccnidatus  so  that  we  may  see  him."  His  lordship 
has  gone  far  beyond  ancient  infidels  in  this  theory.  Horace 
does  indeed  speak  of  men  at  first  as  "  mutum  et  turpe  pe- 
cns,"  mingling  with  other  animals  and  feeding  like  them, 
but  he  does  not  class  them  with  such  in  the  order  of  crea- 
tion. Diodorus  Siculus  also,  in  his  history,  says,  "  That 
men  lived  at  first,  dispersed  like  wild  beasts  in  caves  and 
woods,  and  subsisted  upon  the  natural  productions  of  the 
earth  ;  that  they  had  no  use  of  speech,  and  uttered  inartic- 
ulate cries, — but  having  herded  together  for  fear  of  wild 
beasts,  they  invented  and  imposed  names  upon  all  things." 
The  Epicureans  held  the  same  doctrine,  as  we  may  see 
in  Lucretius, — one  of  their  free-thinking  followers, — who 
represents  the  first  inhabitants  as  living  without  laws  or 
divisions  of  goods,  each  one  providing  for  himself  by 
plunder. 


506  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

"  Sibi  quis  que  valere  et  vivere  doctus," 

nature  and  utility  forcing  them  to  utter  various  sounds  and 
give  names  to  things.  Even  Cicero  represents  the  first  men 
as  living  with  the  wild  beasts  in  the  forests,  but  not  as  Moses, 
who  speaks  of  the  lower  animals  as  subject  to  man.  Very 
different  is  the  account  which  Ovid  gives  of  the  first  of 
the  human  race,  of  their  celestial  origin  and  supreme  au- 
thority. Quintilian  also  rises  high  above  Cicero  and  others, 
and  represents  man  as  having  moral  sentiments  by  nature, 
and  speech  from  the  beginning,  as  "  the  choice  gifts  of  God." 
Homer  also  represents  man  as  a  being  distinguished  by 
his  power  of  articulate  speech,  calling  him  Maerops,  which 
means  articulate  speaking.  Dr.  Johnson  says,  "  Speech, 
if  invented  at  all,  must  have  been  invented  by  children 
who  were  incapable  of  invention,  or  by  men  who  were 
incapable  of  speech."  Dr.  Beattie  well  remarks,  that  if 
they  lived  so  long  without  speech,  as  some  maintain,  they 
would  hardly  have  thougiit  of  inventing  words,  seeing  there 
were  none  used  by  all  the  dumb  animals  around  them  ;  ad- 
ding, "  Therefore,  reason  as  well  as  history  intimates  that 
mankind  in  all  ages  have  been  speaking  animals,  the 
young  having  acquired  this  art  by  imitating  those  who 
were  older ;  and  we  may  warrantably  suppose  that  our  first 
parents  must  have  received  it  by  immediate  inspiration." 
And  wdiat  is  true  of  speech  is  true  of  everything  else  which 
was  necessary  to  man's  piety,  comfort,  and  improvement, 
although  all  things  may  not  have  been  bestowed  in  high- 
est perfection  and  fullest  abundance  at  once.  As  man 
could  not  make  himself  at  first,  neither  could  he  instruct 
himself  in  speech  and  knowledge.  And  yet  there  are 
those  who  seem  doubtful  as  to  this.  "  The  important 
point  (says  one  of  the  Humboldts)  has  not  yet  been  re- 
solved, whether  the  savage  state  which,  in  America,  has 
been  found  in  different  gradations,  is  to  be  looked  upon  as 


THE   ORIGINAL   STATE   OF   MAN.  507 

the  dawning  of  society  about  to  rise,  or  whetlier  it  is  not 
rather  tlie  fading  remains  of  one  sinking  among  storms, — 
overthrown  and.  shattered  by  overwhelming  catastrophes. 
To  me  tlie  hitter  seems  nearer  the  truth  than  the  former." 
"The  famous  historian,  Niebuhr,  (according  to  Archbisliop 
Whately,)  is  said  to  have  recorded  his  full  conviction  that 
all  savages  are  the  degenerate  remnants  of  more  civilized 
races,  which  had  been  overpowered  by  enemies  and  driven 
to  take  refuge  in  the  woods,  there  to  wander,  seeking  a 
precarious  subsistence,  till  they  had  forgotten  most  of  the 
arts  of  settled  life,  and  sunk  into  a  wild  state."  Dr.  Samuel 
Stanhope  Smith,  of  Princeton  College,  in  his  able  treatise 
on  the  diversities  of  color  in  the  human  race,  speaks  more 
boldly,  saying  that  the  savage  state  could  not  have  been 
that  of  the  earliest  generations;  that  such  a  state  is  contrary 
to  all  reason  and  history ;  that  not  only  did  the  savage 
state  degenerate  from  the  most  civilized,  but  that  life 
itself  could  not  have  been  preserved  if  the  first  generation 
had  been  wholly  untaught.* 

The  opponents  of  this  infidel  doctrine,  viz.,  that  the  sav- 
age state  is  the  original  and  natural  state  of  man,  appeal 
to  all  history,  and  afiirm  that  it  can  afford  no  instance  of 
any  tribe  or  nation  which  was  once  in  a  savage  state,  that 
has  recovered  from  it  and  risen  to  a  civilized  one  without 
aid  from  the  civilized  who  have  intermingled  wdth  them. 
They  appeal  to  the  present  condition  of  the  American 
tribes,  who  have  continued  the  same  that  they  were  in  the 
days  of  Columbus,  except  in  those  few  instances  where 
they  have  been  influenced  by  Christian  missionaries  and 
civilized  neighbors.  They  also  refer  to  the  whole  conti- 
nent of  Africa,  filled  with  tribes  of  savages  for  a  long  series 
of  ages,  not  one  of  which  has  made  any  advance  to  civil- 

*  r  have  taken  these  quotations  from  the  admirable  lecture  of  Archbishop 
Whately,  prepared  for  the  Youug  Men's  Association  in  London,  in  the  year 
1855. 


508  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

ization  except  as  tliey  have  come  in  contact  with  Euro- 
peans. These  tribes  are  compared  with  their  descendants 
in  America,  who,  though  in  a  state  of  slavery,  have  be- 
come, by  intercourse  with  the  civilized,  fjir  superior  to 
those  in  Africa.  What  are  all  the  accounts  of  the  most 
ancient  historians  concerning  the  travels  and  conquests  of 
Hercules,  Cadmus,  Prometheus,  Bacchus,  Dionusus,  and 
others,  but  of  heroes  and  colonies  going  into  the  various 
countries  settled  by  the  dispersed  from  Babel,  teaching 
them  letters  and  the  arts,  which  they  had  forgotten  in  the 
forests  to  which  they  had  migrated  ?  The  savage  state  of 
man  is  that  of  the  hunter  in  the  wild  woods.  Agriculture 
and  horticulture  are  the  evidences  of  advancing  civiliza- 
tion. Our  first  parents  were  placed  in  a  rich  garden,  to 
dress  it  and  keep  it.  Their  children  were  not  liunters. 
Cain  was  a  tiller  of  the  ground,  and  Abel  a  keeper  of 
sheep.  The  second  father  of  the  human  race  was  an  hus- 
bandman. The  ferocious  ISTimrod  was  a  mighty  hunter 
before  the  Lord  ;  and  when  the  rebellious  followers  of  Nim- 
rod  were  scattered  over  the  earth,  they  became  hunters 
and  savages  in  many  of  the  countries  thereof,  especially  in 
Europe  and  the  northern  parts  of  Asia.  Egypt,  Babylo- 
nia, and  Asia  Minor  continued  to  be  the  seats  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  from  thence  colonies  went  forth  and  brought  back 
the  savage  tribes  to  primitive  arts,  letters,  and  reiinement. 
No  traces  of  savage  life  can  be  found  before  the  deluge, 
and  none  after  it  until  the  dispersion.  Arts  and  knowledge 
never  ceased  along  the  Euphrates,  the  Tigris,  the  Nile,  and 
the  parts  adjacent.  Here  was  the  leaven  preserved  which 
was  to  leaven  all  Europe  and  Asia  in  after  times.  To  these 
countries  for  centuries  did  the  lovers  of  learning  go  in 
search  of  wisdom.  From  these  countries  did  the  skilful 
architects  go  forth  throughout  all  lands,  building  temples 
and  monuments  to  be  the  wonder  of  after  times, — even  of 
this  day.    The  superior  refinement  and  architectural  skill  of 


THE   ORIGINAL   STATE   OF   MAN.  509 

the  Mexicans  and  Peruvians  are  believed  to  have  come  from 
the  same  source.  The  resemblance  not  only  of  their  relig- 
ious opinions,  but  of  their  buildings  and  arts,  points  to  Eu- 
rope and  Asia  as  the  source  from  whence  they  came, 
while  those  emigrants  which  settled  in  North  America,  pre- 
ferring the  hunter's  life,  soon  degenerated  into  wild  sav- 
ages, and  continue  so  to  this  day.  The  confusion  of  lan- 
guages which  took  place  at  Babel,  and  which  has  been 
increasing  ever  since,  doubtless  contributed  much  to  the 
degeneracy  of  man  towards  the  savage  state.  Great  must 
have  been  the  crime  and  corruption  which  brought  such 
heavy  judgments  upon  the  human  race.  Let  us  hope  that 
the  work  begun  in  the  day  of  Pentecost,  when  the  gift  of 
tongues  was  granted  to  so  many  preachers,  and  so  many 
heard  the  words  of  the  Lord  declared  in  their  various 
tongues,  and  which  lias  been  carried  on  by  missionaries 
learned  in  the  languages,  and  especially  in  the  translation 
of  the  Bible  into  numerous  dialects,  may  go  forward  until 
the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  shall  cover  the  earth.  And 
since  the  labors  of  the  learned  are  continually  finding  out 
connections  between  the  multitudinous  languages  now 
spoken  and  written,  tracing  them  all  to  three  or  four  orig- 
inals, who  shall  say  but  that  the  number  of  languages  may 
be  continually  decreasing  until  some  few  shall  swallow  up 
the  rest,  and  the  nations  be  the  more  easily  persuaded  to 
cast  their  idols  to  the  moles  and  bats,  and  to  worship  with 
one  heart  and  mind,  if  not  with  one  tongue,  as  at  first,  the 
true  and  great  "  i  Am  ?  " 

That  the  arts  flourished  among  the  antediluvians  we 
know  from  the  sacred  narrative.  Cain,  the  first-born  son, 
instead  of  living  in  the  woods  among  inferior  animals, 
tilled  the  ground  and  built  a  city.  In  a  few  centuries  and 
generations  we  read  of  the  harp  and  the  organ,  and  of  ar- 
tificers in  brass  and  iron  ;  and  before  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, according  to  common  computation,  such  was  the  per- 


510  .THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

fectioii  of  sliip  building, — as  probably  of  other  edifices, — 
that  ISToah  constructed  one  of  the  most  stupendous  and  per- 
fect of  human  works — -the  sacred  ark,  supposed  to  have 
borne  in  its  bosom  one  hundred  thousand  tons.  Not  only 
Noali,  but  liis  sons  must  have  carried  with  them  into  the 
ark,  and  from  it  into  the  new  world,  the  knowledge  of  the 
arts  and  sciences,  and  distributed  the  same  among  their 
descendants.  And  if  Archbishop  Usher  and  those  agree- 
ing with  him  be  correct,  and  the  tower  of  Babel  was  built 
within  a  hundred  years  after  the  deluge,  we  have  in  that  an 
evidence  of  the  continued  knowledge  and  skill  in  architec- 
ture of  the  highest  order,  for  it  must  have  been  one  of  the 
mightiest  edifices  that  ever  rested  on  this  earth,  or  lifted 
its  head  towards  the  heavens.  Kor  was  the  art  ever  for- 
gotten. It  soon  began  to  follow  the  dispersed  families 
through  the  earth,  and  helped  to  recover  them  from  the 
savage  state  into  which  they  sunk  amid  the  forests  of  Eu- 
rope and  Africa.  If  Egypt  did,  even  for  a  short  time  and 
in  a  measure,  decline  from  man's  natural  state, — that  of 
civilization, — it  must  soon  have  recovered  it  by  means  of 
colonies  from  Babylonia,  as  her  mighty  pyramids  and  tem- 
ples, arts  and  sciences,  prove.  Truly  has  it  been  said  of 
even  the  present  remains  of  Egyptian  greatness — 

"  O  qnam  te  dicam  bonam, 
Antehac  fuisse,  tales  cum  siat  rcliquige." 

In  regard  to  all  the  fine  things  the  poets  and  some  senti- 
mental philosophers  have  uttered  about  the  state  of  nature, 
in  which  they  suppose  men  to  have  been  born,  and  in 
which  so  many  now  live,  I  will  only  say,  with  Archbishop 
Whately,  "  As  to  the  alleged  advantages  of  savage  life,  the 
freedom  enjoyed  by  man  in  a  wild  state,  the  pure  simplic- 
ity, magnanimity,  and  generosity  of  character  which  he 
exhibits, — I  need  not,  I  trust,  detain  you  by  offering  proof 


THE  ORIGINAL   STATE   OF   MAN.  511 

that  all  this  exists  only  in  poems  and  romances,  or  in  the 
theories  of  the  well-known  Rousseau.  The  liberty  enjoyed 
by  the  savage  consists  in  his  being  left  free  to  oppress  and 
plunder  any  one  who  is  weaker  than  himself,  and  of  being 
exposed  to  the  same  treatment  from  those  who  are  stronger. 
His  boasted  simplicity  consists  merely  in  grossness  of  taste, 
improvidence,  and  ignorance.  His  virtue  merely  amounts 
to  this,  that  though  not  less  covetous,  envious,  and  mali- 
cious than  civilized  man,  he  wants  the  skill  to  be  as  dan- 
gerous as  one  of  equally  depraved  character,  but  more  in- 
telligent and  better  informed."  Such  was  not  man  as  he 
came  forth  from  his  Maker's  hands,  only  a  little  lower  than 
the  angels, — being  in  the  image  of  God  as  to  knowledge 
and  holiness, — when  he  dwelt  in  the  garden  of  Eden,  or 
even  as  he  was  on  the  outside  of  it,  still  beholding  and 
remembering  what  he  was,  and  having  the  hope  of  one 
day  reaching  a  higher  and  happier  one  above." 

*  See  two  admirable  articles,  on  the  subject  treated  of  ia  the  foregoing  chap- 
ter, by  President  Lindsley,  of  Nashville  College,  Teuuesaee,  in  the  "  Biblical  Re- 
pository," published  at  Andover  in  the  year  1840. 


CHAPTER    XXXVII. 

ON  THE  UNITY  OF  THE  HUMAN  RACE. 

The  great  apparent  diversity  in  the  linmaii  family,  as  to 
complexion,  form,  disposition,  and  mental  power,  has  led 
to  the  inqniry  whether  it  had  one  and  the  same  origin.  A 
doubt  on  this  subject  is  scepticism  as  to  our  holy  religion. 
A  denial  of  one  origin  is  a  denial  of  the  Mosaic  history, 
and  a  disproof  of  it  must  be  fatal  to  the  wdiole  Christian 
system.  If  there  be  such  and  so  great  viiriety  from  the 
lirst,  how  can  one  moral  code  answer  for  all,  either  for 
this  present  life  or  for  the  judgment  of  the  great  day? 
What  a  wide  door  would  this  open  to  licentiousness,  by 
making  every  man  his  own  lawgiver,  according  to  his 
origin,  since  God  has  not  given  us  vai'ious  codes.  For 
which  of  the  races  did  Christ  die  ?  Which  of  these 
varieties  did  he  assume?  It  is  written,  "As  in  xVdam  all 
die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive ;"  and  that 
"  God  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  the  nations  upon  earth." 
Surely  nothing  can  more  strongly  set  forth  the  identity  of 
the  human  race  than  these  words  of  the  apostle:  "As  the 
blood  courses  through  the  body,  binding  together  and  giv- 
ing life  to  all  the  members,  so  the  whole  human  family  is 
bound  together  by  one  blood  or  nature."  Should  it  be  said 
that  although  a  number  of  first  pairs  were  made  in  differ- 
ent countries  and  times,  yet  God,  with  whom  all  things 
are  possible,  could  easily  have  made  them  so  alike,  so 
identical,  as  that  one  code  of  morals  and  religion  might 


UKITY   OF   THE  HUMAN   RACE.  513 

answer  for  all  now,  and  one  rule  of  judgment  answer  for 
all  at  the  great  day, — we  replj,  that  such  is  too  unphilo- 
sophical,  and  too  contrary  to  God's  mode  of  proceeding 
with  the  various  orders  of  beings  on  earth,  to  satisfy  even 
the  objectors  themselves  ;  and  that,  if  such  had  been  the 
case,  tradition  and  history  would  liave  been  full  of  these 
different  creations.  What  does  the  oldest  of  all  histories, — 
the  book  of  Genesis, — say  on  this  point?  It  gives  us  the 
particulars  of  the  creation  of  one  man  and  one  woman  in 
Eden,  of  their  children,  and  the  settlement  of  the  same 
throughout  the  old  world,  without  an  allusion  to  the  crea- 
tion of  any  others — these  being  sufficient  for  the  peopling 
of  the  old  world  before  the  flood.  It  tells  us  of  one  family 
being  miraculously  preserved  in  the  ark,  while  all  the  rest 
of  mankind  was  destroyed.  Kot  a  hint  is  there  of  any 
person  dwelling  in  some  distant  part  of  the  earth  being 
saved,  or  any  new  creation  of  human  beings  in  order  to 
replenish  the  earth.  All  subsequent  scriptures  recognize 
this  as  tlie  true  account,  and  not  a  word,  from  Genesis  to 
Revelation,  can  be  so  tortured  as  to  countenance  a  dif- 
ferent doctrine.  If  such  a  remarkable  fact  as  the  crea- 
tion of  different  pairs  of  parents  to  mankind,  in  different 
countries  and  climates,  and  of  any  different  character  and 
appearance,  had  occurred,  surely  Moses,  in  enumerating 
all  the  different  animals  which  God  made,  and  the  differ- 
ent families  before  and  after  the  flood,  must  have  made 
some  reference  to  it.  He  tells  us  of  giants  before  the 
flood,  but  never  intimates  a  different  origin  for  them. 

And  now,  if  we  adapt  and  apply  the  principle  of  our 
book,  and  see  what  other  histories  and  traditions  testify  as 
to  this  point,  we  shall  be  strengthened  in  our  conviction  of 
the  truth  of  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  human  family.  If 
there  had  been  these  different  creations  of  men,  what  a 
theme  would  there  have  been  therein  afforded  for  the  wild 
fictions  of  tlie  poets,  and  the  dreams  of  the  philosophers ! 


514  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

Chaotic  as  the  mytholog}'-  of  the  heathen  was,  numerous 
as  were  their  gods,  rivals  and  enemies  as  they  often  were, 
how  much  more  so  if  such  ground  had  been  furnished  for 
multiplying  their  hero-gods,  and  engaging  them  in  angry 
contests !     We  have  seen,  in  the  previous  chapters  of  this 
book,  how  many  of  the  ancient  traditions  point  to  the  fact 
of  the  formation  of  two  first  parents  of  the  human  race, 
of  their  Asiatic  birthplace,  of  their  fall  from  primitive 
holiness  and  happiness,  of  the  destruction  of  the  race  by 
a  deluge  with  the  exception  of  one  family,  from  whom 
alone    the   world   was   replenished.      The   first   parents, 
Chronos  or  Saturn,  and  Rhea,  were  born  of  Coelus  and 
Terra, — that  is,  made  by  God  out  of  Terra  or  earth, — whose 
sons,  Jupiter,  Pluto,  and  Neptune,  divided  the  earth  be- 
tween them ;  Jupiter  marrying  his  own  sister,  as  must 
needs  have  been,  and  calling  her  his  sister-wife.    Different 
nations  may  have  claimed  for  themselves  the  honor  of  the 
birthplace  of  the  human  race,  as  also  of  the  mount  on 
which  the  ark  rested,  but  they  all  speak  of  one  and  the 
same  origin  of  man,  and  the  one  great  deluge.     The  his- 
tory of  the  confusion  of  languages  at  Babel,  and  the  mul- 
tiplication of  them  ever  since,  is  another  testimony  to  the 
unity  of  the  human  race.     Had  there  been  various  fami- 
lies created,  different  languages  would  have  been  the  un- 
avoidable result,  both  before  and  after  the  flood,  and  there 
would  have  been  no  difficult}^  in  accounting  for  the  variety 
of  tongues.     But  not  only  sacred   history,   but   profane 
tradition    informs    us,    that   before    the   dispersion   from 
Babel  all  were  of  one  speech ;  that  the  diversity  of  lan- 
guage commenced  at  that  time.     Moreover,  sacred  and 
profane  history  agree  most  remarkably  as  to  the  settle- 
ment of  the  earth  by  those  who  survived  the  deluge ;  all 
the  families  issuing   from  Central  Asia,  where   the   de- 
scendants of  Noah  dwelt  for  a  period. 

If  there  was  any  part  of  the  world  where  a  new  crea- 


UNITY   OF   THE   HUMAN   RACE.  515 

tion  was  necessary,  that  part  was  America ;  Liit  tlie  traditions 
of  tlie  Peruvians,  Mexicans,  and  the  more  northern  tribes, 
all  declare  that  their  ancestors  came  from  the  other  hem- 
isphere, and  the  identity  of  their  religions  principles  and 
worship  with  that  of  the  Asiatics,  Europeans,  and  Afri- 
cans, establishes  the  fact. 

Although  the  character  and  object  of  this  book  only 
call  for  a  statement  of  the  scriptural  account  of  the 
unity  of  the  races,  and  such  confirmation  of  the  same  as 
tradition  and  mythology  confirm,  yet,  since  the  subject  is 
one  of  deep  interest  and  importance  at  the  present  time 
by  reason  of  the  assaults  made  upon  our  holy  religion 
through  doubts  insinuated  as  to  the  unity  of  the  human 
race,  we  shall  be  excused  for  a  brief  allusion  to  some  of 
the  principal  defences  of  it  by  the  learned  of  our  day. 

First :  It  is  asserted,  not  merely  of  man,  but  of  the  various 
races  of  animals,  that  they  originated  from  one  pair,  made 
by  the  hands  of  God  himself ;  as  one  proof  of  which  it  is 
affirmed  that  they  cannot  intermingle,  and  then  perpetuate 
the  hybrid  or  mixed  race  which  results,  beyond  one  gen- 
eration. Thus,  the  mule  is  the  progeny  of  the  ass  and  the 
horse,  but  never  goes  further.  Many  animals  of  the  same 
species  become,  by  the  operation  of  the  circumstances  of 
climate,  food,  etc.,  very  different  from  each  other,  and 
form  what  are  called  varieties ;  but  then  these  varieties 
can  intermingle,  and  yet  perpetuate  their  offs])ring.  Not 
so  with  those  originally  distinct.  Thus  with  men :  had 
they  been,  from  the  first,  distinct  races,  as  some  maintain, 
they  must,  according  to  the  laws  established  for  the  animal 
race,  have  continued  distinct ;  whereas,  in  all  ages  and 
countries  we  see  them  intermarrying  and  perpetuating  the 
human  race, — the  color,  features,  form,  etc.,  being  only 
modified  according  as  the  offspring  partook  of  the  pecu- 
liarities of  the  parents. 

Second :  It  is  contended  by  some,  who  deny  the  unity  of 


510  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

the  linman  race  as  tlie  result  of  tlie  formation  of  one  pair 
originally,  that  the  great  diversities  of  color  and  confor- 
mation of  the  body  are  opposed  to  the  doctrine ;  but  these 
objectors  arc  all  thrown  into  confusion  when  they  come  to 
settle  the  question  as  to  the  number  of  the  original  types. 
Some  say  only  three  ;  others,  seventeen ;  others,  all  the 
numbers  between  three  and  seventeen,  N"or  is  this  at  all 
wonderful,  considering  the  almost  endless  diversities  of 
the  human  race  in  some  particulars,  none  of  which,  how- 
ever, aifecting  the  main  features  of  resemblance  and  iden- 
tity. The  difficulties  attending  a  satisfactory  account  of 
the  varieties  of  the  human  race  on  the  supposition  that  all 
are  descended  from  one  pair,  are  as  nothing  compared  to 
those  which  belong  to  the  question  of  the  number  of  types 
originally  formed,  on  the  theory  of  different  creations. 

The  subject  of  color  is  the  great  stumbling-block  to 
many.  It  is  asked,  How  is  it  possible,  in  so  short  a  time, 
for  any  amount  of  heat  from  the  sun,  or  reflection  from  the 
arid  sand,  or  exposure,  to  produce  the  negro  color,  such  as 
it  exists  in  large  portions  of  Africa,  and  has  existed  from 
an  early  period  after  the  deluge  ?  A  recent  infidel  writer 
affirms  that  there  are  monuments  in  Egypt  establishing 
the  existence  of  this  color  in  the  human  body  twenty-four 
hundred  years  before  Christ,  which  might  be  beyond  the 
deluge. 

But  even  supposing  that  these  monuments  were  thus 
ancient,  and  were  not  the  imposition  of  later  years,  as  we 
are  persuaded  is  the  case,  and  that  tliey  were  older  than 
the  flood,  who  can  say  that  there  was  no  dark  complexion 
before  the  deluge,  ])roduced  by  the  same  causes  whicli 
have  produced  tliem  since  ?  Ko  one  can  undertake  to 
aftirm  or  deny  it.  Some  there  are  who  account  for  the 
tln-ee  leading  colors  of  men, — the  fair,  the  tawny,  and  the 
black, — by  contending  tluit,  by  an  act  of  providence,  these 
three  were  impressed  upon  the  three  sons  of  Noah  ;  that 


UNITY   OF  THE    HUMAN   RACE.  517 

Japlaeth  was  fair,  Sliem  tawny,  and  Ilam  black;  that 
their  descendants  inherited  the  color  of  the  fathers.  Be- 
sides the  want  of  any  scriptural  authority  for  this  theory, 
well  attested  history  is  against  it,  for  manj'-  of  the  descend- 
ants of  Ilani  in  various  countries  w^ere  fair,  and  tawny  ; 
while  some  of  the  descendants  of  Shem  in  South  India, 
even  in  the  time  of  Homer,  were  black,  and  many  of  the 
descendants  of  Ilam  in  Africa,  from  Egypt  to  Mount  At- 
las, along  the  Mediterranean,  were  tawnj^  colored.  We 
must  therefore  resort  to  the  able  work  of  Dr.  Samuel 
Stanhope  Smith*  on  color,  written  more  than  sixty  years 
ago,  for  the  most  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  causes  of 
the  difference  in  shades  and  colors  which  have  distin- 
guished the  races  of  men  from  an  early  jjeriod,  viz:  the 
operation  of  heat  and  exposure,  sickness,  and  hard  fare,  to 
which  the  Africans  of  the  interior  have  been  peculiarl}'- 
subjected.  According  to  his  reasons,  the  dark  color  of  the 
Africans  may  have  been  hastened  by  the  fact  that  Mis- 
raim,  or  Phut,  the  sons  of  Ham,  one  of  whom  was  the  an- 
cestor of  the  more  central  Africans,  may  at  his  birth  have 
been  of  a  darker  color,  as  is  often  the  ease  in  the  fairest 
families.  He  may  have  married  a  wife  of  similar  com- 
plexion, and  thus  a  darker  hue  have  been  transmitted  to 
their  posterity ;  and  that  posterity,  being  subjected  to  a 
tropical  sun  in  a  sickl3^,  bilious  region,  exposed  to  all  the 
hardships  of  savage  life,  may  have  become  darker  and 
darker  in  color,  and  more  and  more  gross  in  their  features, 
and  thus  the  varieties  of  the  African  race  have  resulted. 
In  a  similar  way  may  we,  in  some  measure,  account  for 
all  the  varieties  in  all  the  tribes  and  nations  of  the  earth. 

Third :  Another  argument  in  favor  of  the  unity  of  the 
human  race  is  drawn  from  the  study  of  languages,  an- 
cient and  modern.  Its  force  is  accumulating  in  proportion 
as  the  learned  are  making  researches  into  the  primary 
words  or  roots  of  the  nunterous  languages  of  the  earth, 


518  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

and  finding  out  tlie  identity  of  their  origin.  Sir  "William 
Jones  began  this  work  in  Asia  more  than  half  a  century 
since  :  the  most  learned  linguists  in  Europe  have  followed 
in  his  steps.  One  worthy  American,  Professor  Schoolcraft, 
has,  under  the  patronage  of  Congress,  established  the  fact 
that  the  languages  of  the  aboi'igines  of  America  may  be 
traced  to  those  few  tongues  which  Sir  William  Jones  and 
others  have  shown  to  be  the  languages  of  those  dispersed 
from  the  tower  of  Babel,  which  few  might  be  traced,  doubt- 
less, to  tlie  one  spoken  by  the  family  of  Noah  in  the  ark, 
and  thus  to  the  first  parents  of  the  human  race  ;  although 
no  man  can  now  undertake  to  say  which  of  those  carried 
away  from  Babel  partook  most  largely  of  the  language  of 
paradise. 

Fourth,  and  finally :  But  the  great  and  overpowering 
argument  in  favor  of  the  one  origin  of  the  human  race  is, 
the  exact  adaptation  of  one  religion  to  all  the  varieties 
thereof.  We  have  seen  how  human  nature,  in  all  ages  and 
countries,  has  called  for  a  religion  which  had  one  God 
above  all,  (though  there  were  intervening  and  mediating 
deities,)  which  had  atoning  sacrifices,  divine  assistance,  and 
future  rewards  and  punishments;  and  notwithstanding  all 
the  perversions  and  corruptions  of  the  same,  these  things 
surely  pointed  to  a  common  origin,  which  is  now  more 
certainly  established  by  the  fact  of  the  admirable  suit- 
ableness of  our  holy  religion  to  the  wants  of  all  mankind. 
Wherever  the  Christian  religion  is  taught  and  embraced, 
whether  in  heathen  or  Christian  lands,  it  is  understood, 
felt,  and  acted  upon  in  the  same  way,  whether  by  the 
king  on  his  throne,  or  the  peasant  in  his  cot. 

I  conclude  with  the  following  passage  from  the  admira- 
ble treatise  of  Dr.  Cabell,  Professor  in  the  University  of 
Virginia,  on  the  unity  of  the  human  race. 

"  The  unity  of  the  human  race  must  be  considered  a 
fundamental  and  accepted  truth.     Every  department  of 


UNITY   OF  THE   HUMAN   RACE.  519 

knowledge  has  been  searclied  for  evidence,  and  all  respond 
with  a  uniform  testimony.  The  physical  structure,  con- 
stitution, and  habits  of  the  race,  the  mode  in  which  it  is 
produced,  in  which  it  exists,  in  which  it  perishes,  every 
thing  wliich  touches  its  mere  animal  existence,  demon- 
strates the  absolute  certainty  of  its  unity,  so  that  no  otlier 
generalization  of  physiology  is  more  clear  and  more  sure. 
Kising  one  step,  to  the  highest  manifestation  of  man's  phys- 
ical organization,  his  use  of  language  and  the  power  of 
connected  speech — the  most  profound  survey  of  this  most 
complex  and  tedious  part  of  knowledge  conducts  the  in- 
quirer to  no  conclusion  more  indubitable  than  that  there 
is  a  common  origin,  a  common  oi'ganization,  a  common 
nature,  underlying  and  running  through  this  endless  va- 
riety of  a  common  power,  peculiar  to  the  race  and  to  it 
alone.  Thus,  a  second  science,  Philology,  has  borne  its 
marvellous  testimony. 

"Rising  one  more  step,  and  passing  more  completely  to 
a  higher  region,  we  find  the  rational  and  moral  nature  of 
men,  of  every  age  and  kindred,  absolutely  the  same : — 
those  great  faculties  by  wdiich  man  alone,  and  yet  by 
which  every  man  perceives  that  there  is  in  things  that 
distinction  which  we  call  true  and  false,  and  that  otlier 
distinction  which  we  call  good  and  evil ;  upon  which  dis- 
tinctions and  which  faculties  rest  at  last  the  moral  and 
intellectual  destinies  of  the  entire  race,  belonging  to  us  as 
men,  without  which  we  are  not  men,  with  which  we  are 
the  head  of  the  visible  creation  of  God.  So  has  a  tliird 
science,  a  science  which  treats  of  the  whole  moral  consti- 
tution of  man,  embracing  in  its  wide  scope  many  subor- 
dinate sciences,  delivered  its  testimony.  If  we  rise  another 
step,  and  survey  man  as  he  is  gathered  into  families  and 
tribes  and  nations,  with  an  endless  variety  of  develop- 
ment, we  still  behold  the  broad  foundations  of  a  common 
nature  reposing  under  all,  the  grand  principles  of  a  com- 


520  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

mon  "being  ruling  in  tlie  midst  of  all.  So  a  fourth  and 
the  youngest  of  the  sciences.  Ethnology,  brings  her  trib- 
ute. 

"And  now,  from  this  lofty  summit  survej'  the  whole 
track  of  ages,  in  their  length  and  in  their  breadth  ;  scru- 
tinize the  recorded  annals  of  mankind  :  there  is  not  one 
page  on  which  one  fact  is  written  which  favors  the  his- 
torical idea  of  a  diversity  of  nature  or  origin,  while  the 
whole  scope  of  human  story  involves,  assumes,  and  pro- 
claims, as  the  first  and  grandest  historic  truth,  the  abso- 
lute unity  of  the  race.  And  tlien,  mounting  from  earth  to 
heaven,  ask  God — the  God  of  truth — and  he  will  tell  you 
that  the  foundation  truth  of  all  his  works  of  creation  and 
of  providence  is  the  sublime  certainty  that  our  race  was 
created  in  his  own  image  and  of  one  blood  ;  and  thereuj)- 
on,  when  they  had  fallen,  he  offered  to  them  a  common 
salvation  through  his  only-begotten  Son,  made  manifest  in 
their  common  nature. 

"A  bond  of  common  brotherhood  unites  every  portion 
of  the  race  ;  it  is  felt  the  most  keenly  by  those  who  are 
the  most  exalted  ;  and  even  in  the  most  abject,  its  weak 
pulsations  will  still  live  to  attest  the  depth  of  the  truth, 
that  our  race  is  one.  It  is  in  the  life  and  doctrine  of  Jesus 
Christ  that  this  profound  instinct  of  human  nature  finds 
itself  exalted  into  one  of  the  grandest  truths  of  religion, 
and  invested  with  the  sanction  of  heaven.  In  Him  the 
conception  of  this  universal  brotherhood,  which  nature 
teaches  and  all  knowledge  fortifies,  becomes  a  precious, 
living  truth." 


UKITY   OF    THE   HUMAN   RACE.  521 


ADDITIOXAL    AS   TO    THE    UNITY    OF    THE    HUMxlN    RACE. 

"  Why  Imman  beings,"  says  Dr.  Cabell,  "  should  have 
ever  directed  their  wanderings  to  the  regions  of  perpetual 
winter,  we  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  inquire.  We  will, 
however,  venture  to  remark,  that  since  the  plan  of  God's 
wise  providence  has  included  the  partial  occupation  by 
man  of  these  inhospitable  climes,  there  is  no  more  diffi- 
culty in  conceiving  that  he  may  have  effected  this  by  dis- 
posing a  portion  of  his  rational  creatures  to  select  such  a 
home,  than  there  would  be  in  recognizing  his  power  to 
create  a  distinct  type  of  mankind  as  an  autochthon  (orig- 
inal) of  the  soil."  Dr.  Cabell  is  here  combating  the  the- 
ory of  those  who  maintain  tliat  different  races  must  have 
been  formed  to  suit  the  different  climates  and  latitudes,  as 
the  Esquimaux  and  others.  He  quotes  Lyell's  celebrated 
work  in  explanation  of  the  fact  that  such  barren  and  cold 
regions  were  settled  at  so  early  a  period :  "In  an  early 
stage  of  society,  the  necessity  of  hunting  acts  as  a  prin- 
ciple of  repulsion,  causing  men  to  spread  with  the  greatest 
rapidity  over  a  country  until  the  whole  is  covered  Avith 
scattered  settlements.  It  has  been  calculated  that  eight 
hundred  acres  of  hunting-ground  produce  only  as  much 
food  as  half  an  acre  of  arable  land.  When  the  game  has 
been  in  a  measure  exhausted,  and  a  state  of  pasturage 
succeeds,  the  several  hunter  tribes,  being  already  scattered, 
may  multiply  in  a  short  time  into  the  greatest  number 
which  the  pastoral  state  is  capable  of  sustaining."  "Tlie 
necessity,"  says  Brand,  "  thus  imposed  upon  the  savage 
states  of  dispersing  themselves  far  and  wide  over  the 
country,  affords  a  reason  why  at  an  early  period  the  worst 
parts  of  the  earth  may  have  become  inhabited." 

Sir  Charles  Lyell  adduces  many  instances  of  shipwreck 
in  proof  of  the  mode  in  which  the  inhabitants  of  the  old 


523  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS, 

world  may  have  been  at  an  early  period  cast  on  the  shores 
of  the  American  continent,  and  become  the  first  colonists, 
so  as  to  supersede  the  necessity  of  a  separate  creation  ac- 
cording to  the  infidel  theory.  He  says  that  Cooke,  Foster, 
and  others  affirm  that  parties  of  savages  in  their  canoes 
must  have  often  lost  their  way,  and  been  driven  on  dis- 
tant shores,  where  they  were  forced  to  remain,  deprived 
both  of  the  means  and  of  the  requisite  intelligence  for  re- 
turning to  their  own  country. 

Captain  Cook  found,  on  the  Island  of  Wateeo,  three 
inhabitants  of  Otaheite,  who  had  been  drifted  thither  in 
a  canoe,  although  the  distance  between  the  islands  is  five 
hundred  and  fifty  miles.  Other  instances  are  mentioned 
of  crews  in  canoes,  with  men,  women,  and  children,  being 
drifted  from  two  to  eight  hundred  miles.  One  instance  is 
mentioned  of  a  party  being  drifted  fifteen  hundred  miles. 
They  were  in  the  open  sea  for  eight  months,  according  to 
their  reckoning  by  the  moon,  making  a  knot  in  a  cord  at 
every  new  moon :  being  expert  fishermen,  they  subsisted 
entirely  on  the  produce  of  the  sea,  and  when  the  rain  fell, 
laid  in  as  much  fresh  water  as  they  had  vessels  to  contain 
it. 

The  space  traversed,  in  some  instances,  says  Mr.  Lyell, 
was  so  great,  that  similar  accidents  might  suffice  to  trans- 
port canoes  from  various  parts  of  Africa  to  the  shores  of 
South  America,  and  from  Spain  to  the  Azores,  and  thence 
to  Kortli  America,  so  that  mankind  in  a  rude  state  of  so- 
ciety is  liable  to  be  scattered  involuntarily  by  the  winds 
and  waves  over  the  globe  in  a  manner  singularly  an- 
alogous to  that  in  which  many  plants  and  animals  are 
diffused. 

We  have  already  mentioned  Mr.  Maury's  opinion  on 
the  subject,  but  it  deserves  repetition  and  enlargement. 
In  reply  to  some  question  put  to  him  by  Professor  Schoel- 
craft,  he  says,  "You  wish  me  to  state  whether,  in  my 


UNITY   OF  THE   HUMAN   RACE.  523 

opinion,  tlie  Pacific  Polynesian  waters  could  have  been 
navigated  in  early  times,  (supposing  the  winds  had  been 
then  as  they  are  now,)  in  boats  and  other  rude  vessels  of 
the  early  ages.  I  answer,  yes ;  if  you  had  a  supply  of  pro- 
visions, you  could  run  down  the  trades  in  the  Pacific  on  a 
log ;  there  is  no  part  of  the  world  where  nature  would 
tempt  a  savage  man  more  strongly  to  launch  out  upon  the 
open  sea  with  his  bark,  however  frail.  Most  of  those  isl- 
ands are  surrounded  by  coral  reefs,  between  which  and 
the  shore  the  water  is  as  smooth  as  a  mill-pond. 

"  In  reply  to  your  second  question,  as  to  the  possibility 
of  long  voyages  before  the  invention  of  the  compass,  I 
answer,  that  such  chance  voyages  are  not  only  possible, 
but  more  than  probable.  When  we  take  into  considera- 
tion the  position  of  I^orth  America  with  regard  to  Asia, 
of  New  Holland  with  regard  to  Africa,  with  the  winds 
and  currents  of  the  ocean,  it  would  have  been  more  re- 
markable that  America  should  not  have  been  peopled 
from  Asia,  or  New  Holland  from  Africa,  than  that  they 
should  have  been.  Captain  Kay,  of  the  whale-ship  Su- 
perior, fished  two  years  ago  in  Behring  Straits ;  he  saw 
canoes  going  from  one  continent  to  the  other." 

Mr.  Maury  also  speaks  of  a  gulf  stream  from  the  shores 
of  China.  "Along  its  course  westerly  "winds  are  the  pre- 
vailing winds,  and  we  have  well-authenticated  instances 
in  which  these  two  agents  (the  gulf  stream  and  the 
winds)  have  brought  mariners  in  disabled  vessels  over  to 
the  coast  of  America." 

For  further  information  on  the  subject  of  the  human 
race,  I  refer  to  the  chapter  on  the  human  family  in  Mr. 
Pendleton's  recent  work,  "  Science  a  Witness  to  the  Bible," 
in  which  he  adduces  a  number  of  illustrations  and  proofs 
of  tlie  views  contained  in  Professor  Cabell's  book,  which 
make  it  an  excellent  companion  to  the  same.  I  also  refer 
with  pleasure  to  the  argument  drawn  from  the  similarity 


524  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

of  the  various  languages  of  men,  as  used  by  Cardinal 
Wiseman  in  his  masterly  work  on  "  Science  and  Revealed 
Religion."  The  whole  work  is  recommended  to  the  reader 
as  full  of  striking  and  interesting  proofs  that  the  God  of 
nature  and  revelation  is  one  and  the  same ;  that  the  Bible 
rightly  understood,  and  science  well  established,  are  in 
perfect  harmony. 

On  the  subject  of  the  common  origin  of  languages,  the 
cardinal  says  it  has  been  clearly  proved  that  one  group  or 
family  of  languages  pervaded  a  large  part  of  Europe  and 
Asia.  The  great  members  of  this  group  or  family  are  the 
Sanscrit,  or  ancient  and  sacred  language  of  India  ;  the 
Persian,  ancient  and  modern,  formerly  considered  a  Tartar 
dialect ;  the  Teutonic,  with  its  various  dialects,  Sclavo- 
uian,  Greek,  and  Latin,  accompanied  by  its  numerous  de- 
rivations ;  to  which  may  be  added  the  Celtic  dialects.  It 
has  been  found  that  new  and  important  connections  exist 
between  these.  The  Teutonic  dialects  receive  light  from 
the  language  of  Persia.  The  Latin  language  has  remark- 
able points  of  contact  with  Russian  and  other  Sclavonian 
idioms,  and  the  theory  of  the  Greek  verbs  cannot  be 
understood  without  recourse  to  their  parallels  in  San- 
scrit and  Indian  grammars.  Thus  may  they  all  be 
traced  up  to  one  common  source.  The  cardinal  quotes 
the  learned  Alexander  von  Humboldt  as  saying,  that 
"however  insulated  certain  languages  may  at  first  ap- 
pear, however  singular  their  caprices  and  idioms,  all  have 
an  analogy  among  them."  He  says,  "  In  eighty-three 
V  American  languages,  examined  by  Messrs.  Barton  and 
Vater,  one  hundred  and  seventy  words  have  been  found, 
the  roots  of  which  appear  to  be  the  same,  and  numbers 
of  them  resemble  the  languages  of  the  old  world  so  strik- 
ingly as  to  force  conviction  upon  the  mind  that  they  had 
their  orig-in  there.  The  structure  of  all  the  American 
languages  leaves  no  room  to  doubt  that  they  all  form  one 


UNITY   OF   THE   HUMAN   RACE.  525 

individual  family,  so  strong  is  the  grammatical  analogy. 
Especially  is  this  tlie  case  with  the  formation  of  the  verbs, 
from  one  extremity  of  America  to  the  other. 

Professor  Schoolcraft,  under  the  patronage  of  the  Ameri- 
can government,  has  been  for  a  number  of  years  carrying 
on  this  investigation ;  and  in  various  articles,  to  be  seen  in 
his  six  folio  volumes,  has  more  and  more  clearly  estab- 
lished the  above  in  relation  to  the  numerous  dialects  of 
the  Korth  American  Indians. 


CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 

ON  THE  ORACLES  OF  THE  HEATHEN. 

Before  entering  npon  the  consideration  of  these,  we 
must,  according  to  the  plan  of  our  work,  inquire  what 
there  is  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures  to  which  these  oracles  cor- 
respond, and  to  which  they  bear  witness,  as  we  believe 
there  is  nothing  very  general  in  the  world  which  does  not 
point  to  something  which  existed  among  God's  people, 
either  before  or  after  the  flood,  or  during  both  periods. 
The  earliest  use  of  the  word  Oracle  in  scripture  was  in 
reference  to  the  covering  of  the  ark  or  chest  in  which  the 
laws  of  Moses  were  shut  up,  and  from  above  which  God 
manifested  his  will  and  delivered  responses  to  Moses.  It 
sometimes  was  designated  "The  holy  of  holies,"  in  the 
temple  where  the  ark  was  kept.*  Dreams  and  visions, 
such  as  God  sent  to  the  patriarchs,  and  the  interpretation 
of  dreams  such  as  Joseph  and  Daniel  were  inspired  to 
give  to  Pharaoh,  Darius,  and  Kebuchadnezzar,  were  also 
oracles,  or  answers  from  God.  The  answers  to  the  high 
priest  by  means  of  certain  signs  and  appearances  on  the 
urim  and  thummim,  of  the  breast-plate,  and  the  revela- 
tions to  the  prophets,  were  the  oracles  of  God  among  the 
Jews.  The  recorded  scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  are 
called  the  living  oracles  of  God,  in  opposition  to  the  false 

*  It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  the  tripod  of  the  heathen  oracles  was  orig- 
inally not  a  three-footed  stool,  but  a  chest  or  ark  filled  with  stones — Ccelius. 


ORACLES   OF   THE   HEATHElSr.  527 

or  dead  oracles  of  the  heathen,     "  If  any  man  speak," 
says  the  apostle,    "let  him  speak  as  the  oracles  of  God." 
These  are  the  oracles  which  all  Christians  are  bound  to 
consult  in  the  momentous  concerns  of  the  soul,  and  with 
the  assurance  of  a  true  and  intelligible  response.     How 
long  and  how  extensively  God  may  have  communicated 
by  dreams  and  visions  and  angelic  messages  to  the  patri- 
archs, before  the  call  of  Abraham,  and  during  his  life  in 
other  than  the  chosen  family,  is  not  told  us.     That  he  did 
thus  communicate  with  Melchisedec,  Job,  and  others,  we 
have  good  reason  to  believe.     After  the  establishment  of 
idolatry,  the  hero-gods  began  to  be  consulted  in  their  tem- 
ples and  caverns,  and  answers  were  sought  for  and  said  to  be 
received  ;  but  it  is  believed  that  this  mode  of  consulting 
the  Deity  was  rare,  in  the  early  ages.     Homer  only  men- 
tions two  of  the  oracles, — that  of  Jupiter  Dodona  in  Epirus, 
and  of  Apollo  at  Delphi,  in  Phocis,  near  Mount  Parnassus. 
These,  with  the  temple   of  Jupiter  Ammon    in  the  des- 
erts of  Libya,  were  the  principal  oracles.     In  process  of 
time  they  became  multiplied,  so  that  in  the  small  province 
of  BoBotia  there  were  not  less  than  twenty-five,  and  the  same 
number  in  Peloponnesus,  the  later  hero-gods  aspiring  to 
the  honor  of  having  oracular  temples.  They  are  consulted 
not  only  on  the  more  important  questions  of  peace  and 
war,  or  settling  colonies,  or  changing  governments,  but 
even  on  tlie  aflairs  of  private  life.     The  oracular  temples 
were  usually  located  in  deep  forests,  or  steep,  craggy  places. 
Sometimes  the  tripod  or  chair   on  which  the  priest   or 
priestess  was  seated  was  over  the  mouth  of  a  cavern,  and 
the  vapor  issuing  from  it  was  said  to  have  a  powerfully 
stimulating  effect,  inspiring  or  infuriating  those  who  were 
upon  it.     The  answers  delivered  were  either  in  prose  or 
verse,  and  were  always  in  some  mysterious  or  enigmatical 
or  ambiguous  form,  so  that  in  either  event,  whether  fortu- 
nate or  otherwise,  the  credit  of  the  oracle  might  be  sus- 


528  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

tained.  Oftentimes  the  answer  was  to  be  inferred,  not  from 
anything  said,  bnt  from  the  fliglit  of  birds,  or  some  appear- 
ance in  tlie  skj,  or  some  nnnatnral  sound,  so  tliat  all  was 
uncertaint}^  Still  it  is  an  admitted  tact,  that  these  oracles 
were  held  in  high  repute  until  the  Christian  era,  when  they 
rapidly  declined,  so  that  even  that  at  Delphi  was  closed  ; 
for  Juvenal  says, 

"  Del  phis  oracula  cessant. 
Et  genus  humanum  damnat  caligo  futuri."* 

If  it  were  only  the  common  people,  and  some  very  credu- 
lous and  superstitious  ones  of  the  higher  orders  who  be- 
lieved in  them,  we  might  account  for  it  in  the  same  way 
that  we  do  for  the  popularity  of  the  tribes  of  fortune-tel- 
lers and  jugglers  and  astrologers,  which  have  found  em- 
ployment and  gained  some  credit  in  all  ages  and  countries, 
with  a  certain  portion  of  mankind.  But  what  shall  we 
say  to  the  countenance  given  to  them  and  the  use  made  of 
them  by  statesmen  and  generals  and  kings  and  philoso- 
phers? It  is  supposed  by  some  that  these  did  not  really 
believe  in  them,  but  only  used  them  to  gain  certain  ob- 
jects with  the  credulous  soldiers  and  people,  when  they 
wished  to  stimulate  them  to  war  or  some  great  enterprise. 
It  is  well  known  that  besides  rich  presents  by  which  to 
propitiate  the  oracle,  bribes  were  sometimes  used  to  pro- 
cure a  favorable  answer,  as  with  our  fortune-tellers.  It  is 
also  well  known  that  a  difference  of  opinion  prevailed 
among  the  ancients  as  to  their  reliability.  Eusebius, 
among  the  fathers  of  the  Christian  church,  who  believed 
that  nothing  but  human  ingenuity  and  fraud  sustained 

*  The  most  learned  heathen  were  very  much  at  a  loss  how  to  give  a  tolerable 
account  of  it.  Porphyry  says,  "  Since  Jesus  began  to  be  worshipped,  no  man 
has  received  any  public  help  or  benefit  from  the  gods."  Christians  under- 
stand how  it  is  that  the  oracles  wei-e  deserted,  in  those  words  of  our  Lord  :  "  I 
beheld  Satan  as  lightning  fall  from  heaven."  All  idolatry  and  falsehood  are  the 
works  of  the  devil — "  the  prince  of  the  powers  of  the  air." 


ORACLES   OF   THE   HEATHEN".  529 

their  declarations,  sajs  that  there  Avere  not  less  than  six 
linndred  authors  among  tlie  heathen  themselves  who  wrote 
against  the  reality  of  the  oracles.  Although  the  fathers 
generally  ascribed  to  them  something  superhuman,  and 
said  that  the  father  of  evil  spirits  aided  them,  yet  there  are 
those  who  think  that  for  the  most  part  this  was  considered 
the  best  method  of  arguing  against  tliem  with  the  hea- 
then, viz.,  to  charge  them  with  collusion  with  the  devil, 
though  they  regarded  all  their  answers  as  the  works  of 
human  fraud.  Among  the  moderns  different  sides  have 
been  espoused.  Bishop  Sherlock  contended  that  they  were 
inspired  by  the  father  of  lies.  Dr.  Middleton  has  taken 
the  other  side,  maintaining  that  nothing  but  human  sagac- 
ity and  deception  spoke  from  their  oracles.  That  they  did 
deliver  some  answers  as  to  future  events,  of  a  most  remark- 
able character,  so  as  to  gain  them  great  credit,  is  too  noto- 
rious to  be  denied.  Their  continuing  for  so  long  a  period 
cannot  be  accounted  for,  except  on  the  supposition  of  some- 
thing very  remarkable  in  their  character  and  conduct.  The 
character  of  some  of  tliese  answers  ought  to  be  examined 
into,  in  order  that  we  may  form  a  proper  idea  of  the  neces- 
sity for  some  supernatural  assistance,  whether  of  God  or 
Satan,  in  order  to  make  them.  The  ambiguous  answer  of 
the  oracle  of  Delphi  to  Pyrrhus,  when  he  wished  to  engage 
in  a  war  with  the  Romans,  requires  no  supernatural  aid. 
It  was  a  mere  play  upon  words, — "  Aio  te  Eacida,  Roma- 
nes vincere  posse  ;  "  as  it  can  be,  with  equal  accuracy, 
grammatically  rendered,  "  I  know  that  you,  O  Pyrrhns, 
can  conquer  the  Romans,"  or  "  That  the  Romans  can  con- 
quer you,  O  Pyrrhus."  The  oracle  was  safe,  however  the 
war  might  eventuate.  But  the  famous  answer  to  Croesus, 
king  of  Lydia,  when  about  to  engage  in  a  war  with  Per- 
sia, is  of  a  different  character.  Being  doubtful  of  the  oracle, 
Croesus  determines  first  to  try  its  superhuman  knowledge, 
and  sent  a  messenger,  v/ho,  at  the  end  of  a  hundred  days, 
34 


530  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

must  inquire  what  the  occupation  of  the  king  at  that  time 
would  be.  Tlie  reply  of  the  god  was,  "That  he  smelt  the 
odor  of  a  lamb  boiled  with  a  tortoise,  while  brass  was  at 
once  above  and  beneath  it,"  and  such  it  was  said  was  ac- 
tually his  occupation  at  the  time.  It  is  clear  that  none  but 
God,  or  some  swift-winged  spirit,  could  in  a  moment  have 
flown  from  once  place  to  another,  or  could  communicate 
such  information.  "We  can  readily  conceive  that  some 
exalted  spirit  might  do  this.  But  Croesus,  wishing  to  be 
more  sure,  sent  to  inquire  of  the  oracle  whether  he  would 
be  victorious  in  the  proposed  war :  to  which  an  ambig- 
uous answer  was  returned,  viz.,  "  That  he  would  over- 
throw a  great  empire."  In  order  to  a  true  and  positive 
answer  to  the  last  question,  foreknowledge  was  necessary 
— an  attribute  of  the  Deity — wliich  no  being,  human  or 
angelic,  possesses,  except  so  far  as  God  speaks  by  such 
a  one.  The  oracle,  therefore,  resorts  to  ambiguity.  Croe- 
sus, wishing  to  be  yet  more  sure,  inquires  whether  his 
power  would  ever  be  diminished.  This  also  required 
knowledo-e  of  future  events,  and  therefore  the  oracle  resorts 
to  a  subterfuge,  and  advises  the  monarch  to  consult  his 
safety  by  flight  "  whenever  a  mule  should  reign  over  the 
Medes;"  which  Crcesus  understood  as  insuring  him  suc- 
cess, since  a  mule  could  not  be  king.  But  it  turned  out  that 
the  mule  was  Cyrus,  the  Medo-Persian,  who  united  the 
two  kingdoms  of  Medea  and  Persia,  and  conquered  Croe- 
sus. In  either  event  the  credit  of  the  oracle  was  secure. 
If  Crossus  was  victorious  and  kept  the  kingdom,  then  the 
oracle  had  declared  the  truth,  by  saying  that  he  m' ould  be 
so  until  a  mule  should  reign — a  thing  impossible.  If  he 
was  overcome,  then  the  oracle  had  prophesied  it,  and  it 
was  fulfilled  in  the  union  of  the  Medes  and  Persians  under 
Cyrus,  by  the  conquest  of  Croesus.  The  first  answer  is 
therefore  the  only  one  which  requires  superhuman  power, 
the  others  being  ingenious  subterfuges.     The  only  ques- 


OEACLES   OF   THE   HEATHEN.  531 

tion  therefore  is,  whether  some  superior  being  did  aid  these 
institutions.  That  the  demons  or  hero-gods  of  the  heathen 
did  not  and  could  not  aid  them,  all  who  accej)t  the  scrip- 
tures must  believe.  God  declares  that  Jupiter,  Apollo, 
Minerva,  and  all  the  supposed  deities  of  the  different  ora- 
cles, were  nonentities,  vanities,  no  gods,  and  of  course 
could  impart  no  knowledge  whatever  of  things  present  or 
to  come.  Our  God  disavows  all  superintendence  or  gov- 
ernment over  them,  except  such  as  he  exerts  over  every- 
thing in  the  universe,  and  by  which  he  derives  some  good 
out  of  all  evil,  and  makes  all  things  contribute  to  some  wise 
end.  But,  although  there  are  no  gods  such  as  the  heathen 
worship,  there  are  other  beings  besides  men  who  are 
spoken  of  in  scripture,  called  "principalities,  powers,  and 
spiritual  wickedness,"  who  though  not  seen  among  men 
had  something  to  do  with  men.  Ancient  mythologies 
have  many  traditions  of  such  an  order  of  malicious  beings. 
The  scripture  makes  frequent  mention  of  them.  It  tells  of 
an  order  of  angels  which  was  banished  from  heaven  for 
pride  and  rebellion.  At  the  time  of  our  Saviour's  resi- 
dence on  earth  they  were  numerous  and  most  annoying. 
Although  they  knew  who  he  was,  and  were  forced  to  ac- 
knowledge his  divine  character,  yet  were  they  not  re- 
strained from  evil,  but  took  possession  of  the  bodies  of  men, 
and  tormented  them.  This  was  doubtless  permitted  that 
the  power  and  grace  of  Christ  might  be  the  more  mani- 
fested in  their  discomhture.  But  there  was  one  among 
them  as  a  prince  and  leader,  called  Beelzebub, — "  Prince  of 
the  devils,"  "Prince  of  the  powers  of  the  air," — who  doubt- 
less possessed  talents  and  abilities  of  the  highest  order, 
next  perhaps  to  the  God  against  whom  he  rebelled,  and  by 
whom  he  and  his  followers  were  cast  out  of  heaven.  He 
it  was  who  first  appeared  on  earth  at  the  birthplace  of  our 
first  parents,  and  under  the  guise  of  a  serpent  deceived 
them.     He  it  is  of  whom  we  read  in  the  books  of  Moses, 


532  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

and  Job,  and  the  prophets,  as  the  persevering  enemy  of 
the  Imnian  race.  Ho  it  was  who  liad  the  daring  to  assail 
the  Son  of  God  by  his  temptation,  and  even  perverted  the 
oracles  of  God  to  induce  him  to  violate  his  duty  to  the 
Father.  AVith  him  the  Saviour  contended  in  the  wilder- 
ness, and  cast  him  down  like  lightning  from  heaven. 
'Now  the  question  before  the  Christian  world, from  the  time 
of  the  fathers  to  the  present  day,  is,  whether  God  may  not 
liave  permitted  thisanthor  of  all  evil  so  far  to  influence  the 
heathen  oracles  as  to  enable  them  to  speak  some  remark- 
able things,  whereby  to  establish  great  credit  among  men. 
God  might,  witiiout  granting  to  him,  or  through  him  to 
others,  his  own  attribute  of  prescience,  allow  to  him  the 
power  of  acquiring  much  knowledge  of  the  affairs  of  men, 
and  of  rapid  and  invisible  flight  trom  place  to  place,  so  as 
to  answer  the  first  question  of  Croesus,  in  reference  to  his 
occupation  at  a  certain  time  and  place,  while  he  could  not 
answer  the  otlier  two,  which  required  the  divine  power  of 
foreknowledge,  except  by  enigmas  and  subterfuges.  Those 
who  advocate  this  view  of  the  devil's  influence  in  oracles 
say,  tliat  God  may  have  allowed  it  for  the  purpose  of  using 
his  instrumentality  in  lavor  of  good,  since  the  oracles,  like 
the  pagan  mysteries  at  first,  did  advocate  the  cause  of  virtue 
and  religion,  No  one  can  read  the  history  of  Greece,  as 
given  by  Herodotus,  and  borrowed  from  him  by  others,  in 
that  most  interesting  and  critical  period  when  the  millions 
from  Asia,  under  Xerxes,  Darius,  and  Mardonius  seemed 
about  to  devour  the  little  liandful  of  Athenian  Spar- 
tans, without  admiring  and  acknowledging  the  spirit  of 
humble  dependence  on  some  superior  beings  which  was 
shown  by  their  constant  appeals  to  the  gods  and  oracles, 
before  the  almost  incredible  escapes  and  victories  which 
signalized  that  most  eventful  period.  Herodotus,  though 
evidently  not  much  inclined  to  favor  the  oracles,  yet  says 
that  he  dare  not  disbelieve  them.     Their  encouraging  re- 


ORACLES   OF   THE   HEATHE^T.  533 

sponses,  whether  the  result  of  bribery  and  corruption  or  of 
anvthino;  else,  certainlv  had  the  effect  of  stiuiulatine:  to 
the  most  daring  deeds  of  defensive  war  that  the  history  of 
man  has  ever  furnished.* 

But  in  opposition  to  the  belief  of  superhuman  assistance 
and  inspiration  to  the  oracles,  from  the  great  enemy  of 
snankind  and  father  of  lies,  it  is  asked,  Can  it  be  believed 
that  God,  to  whom  this  wicked  one  is  subject,  would  allow 
him  thus  to  deceive  the  world  and  give  encouragement  to 
falsehood  and  idolatry  ?  To  this  it  may  be  answered,  that 
God  permitted  him  in  the  form  of  a  serpent  to  tempt  and 
deceive  our  first  parents,  and  to  continue  his  evil  influence 
over  men  to  this  day  ;  he  was  permitted  to  put  it  into  the 
Iieart  of  Judas  to  betray  our  Lord,  and  into  the  heart  of 
Ananias  to  lie  to  the  Holy  Ghost;  he  has  permitted  him 
to  appear  sometimes  in  the  garb  of  an  angel  of  light,  to 
"deceive,  if  it  were  possible,  the  very  elect."     Sometimes 


*  In  cue  place  Herodotus  says,  "  In  thus  speaking  of  them,  (the  oracles,)  may 
I  meet  witb  indulgence  both  from  gods  and  heroes."  In  another  place,  speak- 
ing of  some  things  which  occurred  during  the  wars  between  the  Athenians  and 
Persians,  he  saj-s,  "  I  neither  dare  myself  to  say  anything  against  oracles  nor 
allow  othere  to  do  so."  The  wonderful  deliverances  of  the  Greeks  at  that  time 
raised  the  oracles  of  the  gods  to  high  esteem.  The  language  which  Herodotus 
puts  into  their  mouths  is  remarkable.  The  Athenians,  refusing  to  accept  the 
terms  of  Xerxes  by  Mardonius,  said,  "We  will  trust  in  the  gods  who  fight  for  us, 
and  in  the  heroes  whose  images  and  temples  he  has  burnt."  While  supplica- 
ting Apollo  at  Delphi,  during  the  war  with  Xerxes,  they  said,  "  We  will  never 
depart  from  thy  sanctuary  without  a  favorable  answer,  but  will  remain  here  un- 
til we  die ;"  reminding  us  of  wrestling  Jacob  who  became  prevailing  Israel,  "  I 
will  not  let  thee  go,  except  thou  bless  me."  After  the  defeat  of  the  Persians, 
Themistocles  is  made  to  say,  "  We  have  not  wrought  this  deliverance  ourselves, 
but  the  gods  and  the  heroes,  who  were  jealous  that  one  man  should  reign  over 
both  Europe  and  Asia,  and  he  unholy  and  wicked."  The  piety  of  the  Greeks  is 
compared  to  the  impiety  of  Xerxes,  who  scourged  the  Hellespont  for  having  de- 
stroyed his  fleet.  The  fatalism  of  the  Persians  is  also  spoken  of  by  Herodotus. 
Ue  says  that  one  of  the  Persians  who  heard  it  himself,  told  him  that  a  great  man 
in  the  army  of  Mardonius,  before  the  battle  of  Platca.  predicted  the  destruction 
of  the  army,  saying,  "  That  which  is  fated  by  the  Deity  to  happen,  must  be  ;  it 
is  impossible  for  man  to  avert.    We  follow  by  being  bound  by  necessity." 


584  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

lie  goes  through  the  eartli  like  a  roaring  lion,  seeking 
whom  he  may  devour. 

It  seems  to  belong  to  tlie  nature  and  condition  of  men, 
while  under  probation,  to  V)e  exposed  to  some  tem])tation, 
but  it  is  also  a  part  of  that  condition  to  be  able  to  resist 
such  temptation.  In  opposition  to  tlie  language  of  some 
who  say  we  are  under  tlie  necessity  of  yielding  to  tempta- 
tion, God  declares,  "  Let  no  man  say  when  he  is  tempted, 
I  am  tempted  of  God,  for  God  cannot  be  tempted  of  evil, 
neither  tempteth  he  any  man  ;  but  every  man  is  tempted 
when  he  is  drawn  away  by  his  own  lust  and  enticed  ; 
and  lust  when  it  has  conceived  bringeth  forth  sin,  and  sin 
when  it  is  finished  bringeth  forth  death." 

This  declaration  of  God  we  may  undoubtedly  apply  to 
the  temptation  of  our  first  parents  and  all  of  their  children 
by  the  devil.  Had  God  sent  liira  forth  into  the  world 
with  irresistible  power  to  do  evil ;  had  our  first  parents 
been  left  alone  in  ])aradise  with  the  deceitful  tempter  and 
witli  no  power  to  i-esist  liim  ;  had  not  God  given  them  a 
law,  and  been  near  at  hand  to  aid  them  to  obey  it,  there 
might  have  been  cause  to  complain  that  he  was  a  hard 
task-master,  laying  on  man  more  than  he  was  able  to  bear. 
But  the  language  of  God  to  our  first  parents  and  his  treat- 
ment of  them  plainly  show  that  they  did  not  sin  igno- 
rantly  and  under  any  avoidable  necessity,  tlirough  the 
power  of  tlie  devil. 

So  it  has  been  ever  since,  with  the  whole  race  of  man- 
kind ;  they  have  been  exposed  to  temptation  from  the  evil 
one — "  the  prince  of  this  world" — and  yet  he  has  not  had 
almighty  and  irresistible  power,  iLimits  have  been  set 
to  that  power  by  God  himself.  Even  though  he  may 
have  been  permitted  to  do  and  say  some  wonderful  things 
through  the  oracles,  which  turned  out  to  be  true,  for  the 
most  part  he  failed,  was  the  father  of  lies,  and  constant 
apologies  for  the  oracles  were  required.     God  never  per- 


ORACLES  OF  THE  HEATHEN.  635 

mitted  him  to  interfere  with  the  free  agency  necessary  to 
man  in  his  probationary  state.  He  had  his  chain,  and 
that  chain  was  in  the  hand  of  God,  who  said  to  him — 
"  Thus  far  shalt  thou  go,  and  no  fiirtlier." 

We  need  not  fear  to  admit  that  this  wise  and  artful 
being  might  be  permitted  by  God  to  create  some  mischief 
among  men  by  means  of  oracles,  and  the  superhuman 
answers  made  through  them,  since  he  was  permitted, 
through  the  instrumentality  of  a  serpent,  to  do  mischief 
in  paradise.  God  permits  evil  men  to  be  seducers,  and 
yet  not  to  force  others  to  yield  to  their  seductions.  He 
gives  the  power  of  resistance  to  us,  and  calls  on  us  to  ex- 
ert it,  and  j)romises  divine  assistance  to  enable  us  to  resist 
evil  and  do  good  ;  we  have  also  good  men  to  allure  us  into 
the  paths  of  duty,  in  opposition  to  those  who  would  lead 
us  into  evil.  So,  in  opposition  to  the  evil  persuasions  of 
the  devil  and  his  angels,  we  have  good  angels  to  help  us  in 
our  efforts  of  piety.  Moreover,  our  Lord  said  that  "  He 
that  is  for  us  is  greater  than  ho  that  is  against  us."  It 
is  promised  that  if  we  "  resist  the  devil,  he  will  flee  from 
us,"  and  that  we  shall  in  the  end  "  beat  him  down  under 
our  feet."  We  conclude,  therefore,  that  there  is  nothing 
unscriptural  in  the  argument  for  Satanic  influence  over 
the  pagan  oracles,  though  we  are  not  required  to  believe 
it,  because  the  scriptures  do  not  enjoin  the  belief. 

That  the  devil  has  exerted  great  power  through  the 
false  priests  of  false  religions,  we  may  infer  from  the  facts 
recorded  in  scripture  concerning  the  rod  of  Moses.  When 
it  was  turned  into  a  serpent,  Pharaoh's  servants  did  the 
same,  but  it  was  permitted  only  that  Moses'  rod  might 
swallow  up  theirs,  and  thus  show  who  was  the  true  God. 
Simon  the  sorcerer,  and  the  seven  sons  of  Sceva  the  Jew, 
who  by  their  craft  made  much  gain,  may  have  been  ena- 
bled by  Satan  to  do  some  wonderful  things,  but  we  see 
what  use  the  apostles  made  of  them. 


536  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

We  read,  says  Mr,  Faber,  in  the  "Acts  of  the  Apostles," 
of  a  young  female  who  was  possessed  with  a  spirit  of 
divination,  according  to  our  version,  but  with  a  sf)irit  of 
Python,  according  to  the  original  Greek.  This  spirit  ena- 
bled her  to  utter  certain  oracular  responses,  by  which  con- 
siderable jDrofit  accrued  to  her  master.  When  she  beheld 
Paul  and  his  companions,  the  spirit  was  compelled  to  tes- 
tify through  her  organs  that  they  were  the  servants  of  the 
most  high  God,  and  that  they  came  to  teach  the  way  of 
salvation.  At  length  the  apostle,  grieved  to  see  such 
things,  charged  the  spirit,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  to 
come  out  of  her.  This  adjuration  it  was  constrained  to 
obey.  Now,  according  to  the  plain  and  unvarnished  im- 
port of  this  narrative,  the  young  female  was  possessed  by 
an  evil-  spirit,  which  compelled  her  to  utter  responses  of 
an  oracular  nature.  The  spirit  was  an  intelligent  and  liv- 
ing agent,  as  appears  from  his  conveying  to  the  girl  a 
clear  knowledge  of  the  character  and  office  of  St.  Paul. 
And  he  is  denominated  a  spirit  of  Python,  which  is  the 
precise  name  of  the  Delphic  serpent  that  was  slain  by 
Apollo,  but  which  delivered  oracles  from  a  sacred  cave  in 
Mount  Parnassus.  This  fabulous  monster,  as  it  is  well 
known,  communicated  the  title  of  Pythius  to  the  god,  and 
of  Pythia  to  his  oracular  priestess,  who  was  supposed  to 
receive  the  vapor  of  inspiration  through  the  cleft  of  a  rock. 
Putting  these  matters  together,  says  Mr.  Faber,  we  cer- 
tainly seem  to  collect  that  there  was  something  more  than 
mere  juggling  imposture  in  the  responses  of  the  ancient 
oracles. 

From  a  careful  examination  of  the  oi^inions  of  many 
of  the  most  judicious  as  well  as  learned  writers,  ancient 
and  modern,  I  find  such  to  have  been  their  prevailing  im- 
pressions, though  there  be  some  diversity  of  sentiment 
among  them. 


CHAPTER    XXXIX. 

ON   THE   SUPERIORITY   OF   THE   BIBLE   AND   FfS   RELIGION   TO 
ALL   OTHER   BOOKS   AND   RELIGIONS. 

Although  man  must  be  considered  a  religious  being  by 
nature,  so  far  as  to  have  religious  instincts  inclining  him 
to  receive  the  invisible  things  of  God  and  of  another  life, 
still  there  is  also  in  him  an  evil  heart  of  unbelief,  inclin- 
ing him  to  doubt  many  things  in  our  sacred  books,  as  well 
as  those  fables  which  are  found  in  the  pagan  mythologies. 
We  have  endeavored  to  furnish  an  antidote  to  this  dispo- 
sition, so  far  as  it  regards  the  Bible,  by  presenting  an  ar- 
gument in  its  behalf  draAvn  from  opposing  systems.  There 
are  some  things  in  those  systems  which  are  well  calculated 
to  encourage  unbelief  in  the  reader  as  to  all  religion ; 
while  there  are  other  things  which,  rightly  used,  should 
have  a  different  eftect.  We  have  endeavored  to  make 
that  right  use,  by  showing  that  what  is  good  and  true  in 
the  pagan  systems  must  have  come  from  the  same  source 
with  the  Bible  itself.  In  drawing  our  work  to  a  close,  we 
purpose  to  strengthen  our  argument  by  a  brief  compari- 
son of  the  mixed  and  imperfect  systems  of  men  with  the 
pure  and  perfect  one  of  God,  as  seen  in  the  scriptures  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  It  has  been  rightly  said, 
that  "  Truth  is  the  greatest  gift  which  God  can  bestow, 
or  man  receive."  The  Bible  is  emphatically  called  the 
"  word  of  truth."  Compared  with  it,  all  other  books,  ex- 
cept so  far  as  drawn  from  the  same  source,  are  but  the 


538  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

cunningly-devised  fables  of  men.  This  has  been  "  tried  • 
to  the  uttermost"  by  the  sophistries  of  infidels,  the  re- 
searches of  the  wise,  and  the  practical  experiment  of  its 
virtue  and  power  on  the  hearts  and  lives  of  millions,  and 
has  proved  itself  to  be  that  "  word  of  the  Lcfi'd  which  is 
settled  forever  in  heaven."  Tliis  alone,  among  all  other 
books,  is  "perfect,  entire,  wanting  nothing."  It  has  been 
the  only  thing  of  the  kind  which  has  been  allowed  to  get 
old.  All  other  ancient  books  have  only  been  seen  in  frag- 
ments and  corrupted  versions.  God  has  kept  this  as  the 
apple  of  his  eye,  placing  it  in  the  very  bosom  of  his 
church,  against  which  the  gates  of  hell  have  not  been  al- 
lowed to  prevail,  so  as  to  carry  away  any  of  it.  Although 
the  devil  may  sometimes  take  a  portion  of  the  word,  as 
read  or  heard,  out  of  the  hearts  of  men,  he  has  never 
been  permitted  to  steal  it  out  of  the  hands  of  God's 
church.  When  our  Lord  was  on  earth,  though  upbraid- 
ing the  Jews  with  so  much  misunderstanding  and  perver- 
sion of  his  word,  he  never  charged  them  with  mutilating 
it,  so  faithfully  had  it  been  kept.* 

Pursuing,  as  far  as  may  be,  the  plan  of  our  book,  we 
first  adduce  some  passages  from  scripture  descriptive  of 
their  own  character.     David,  the  sweet  psalmist  of  Israel, 

*  Cardinal  Wiseman,  in  speaking  of  the  integrity  of  the  scriptures  as  proved 
by  a  comparison  of  all  the  various  readings  and  versions  of  the  same,  says, 
"Although  the  fathers  of  every  age  have  been  gleaned  for  these  readings,  al- 
though the  versions  of  every  nation  have  been  ransacked  for  their  renderings, 
although  the  manuscripts  of  every  age,  from  the  sixteenth  to  the  third  century, 
have  been  again  and  again  visited  by  industrious  swarms,  yet  has  nothing  been 
discovered, — no,  not  one  single  various  reading, — which  can  throw  doubt  upon 
any  passage  before  considered  certain  and  decisive  in  favor  of  any  important  doc- 
trine." He  mentions  the  fact  that  Dr.  Buchanan  bought  a  Hebrew  manuscript 
used  by  the  black  Jews  of  India,  who  had  for  ages  been  cut  off  from  all  com- 
munication with  other  parts  of  the  world.  It  was  the  fragment  of  an  immense 
roll,  which  must  have  been  originally  ninety  feet  long.  It  was  written  at  dif- 
ferent times  and  by  different  persons,  and  contains  a  considerable  portion  of 
the  Pentateuch.  On  a  comparison  of  it  with  a  standard  edition  of  the  Penta- 
teuch, it  is  found  to  contain  no  various  reading  of  the  least  importance. 


SUPERIORITY   OF  THE   BIBLE.  539 

— the  poet  laureate  of  heaven, — who  lived  in  the  Angiis- 
tan  age  of  Hebrew  literature,  says,  "The  words  of  the 
Lord  are  pure  words ;  as  silver  tried  in  a  furnace,  purified 
seven  times."  In  answer  to  prayer,  his  "  eyes  had  been 
opened  to  see  wondrous  things  out  of  the  laAv."  He  had 
also  hid  it  in  the  deep  of  his  heart,  and  had  kept  it. 
Thus  was  he  made  wiser  than  his  enemies,  wiser  than  his 
teachers,  wiser  than  the  aged.  Thus  does  he  describe  it : 
"  Tlie  law  of  the  Lord  is  an  undefiled  law,  converting  the 
soul ;  the  testimony  of  the  Lord  is  sure,  and  giveth  wis- 
dom unto  the  simple ;  the  statutes  of  the  Lord  are  right, 
and  rejoice  the  heart ;  the  commandment  of  the  Lord  is 
pure,  and  giveth  light  unto  the  eyes;  the  judgments  of 
the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether.  More  to  be 
desired  are  they  than  gold,  yea,  than  much  fine  gold  ; 
sweeter  also  than  honey  and  the  honeycomb.  Moreover, 
by  them  is  thy  servant  taught,  and  in  keeping  of  them 
there  is  great  reward."  If  we  study  this  book,  hiding  it 
in  our  hearts — eating  it,  as  the  prophet  bids — we  shall  ex- 
perience the  truth  of  these  words  :  "  The  entrance  of  thy 
word  gives  light,"  and  shall  find  ourselves  ever  exclaim- 
ing, "Thy  testimonies,  O  Lord,  are  wonderful."  But 
David  only  spoke  of  the  scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament 
before  his  time.  Let  us  hear  what  St.  Paul  says  of  the 
same,  as  enlarged  by  later  prophets,  by  our  Lord,  and  the 
apostles.  He  Avas  a  man  of  letters  as  well  as  grace,  un- 
derstood profane  as  well  as  sacred  literature.  Though 
once  caught  up  into  the  third  heaven,  and  seeing  unutter- 
able things,  he  returned  to  the  earth  to  study  as  well  as 
teach  Sacred  Scriptures.  "All  scripture,"  he  says,  "is 
given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable  for  doc- 
trine, for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in  right- 
eousness, that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly 
furnished  unto  all  good  works." 

The  psalms  of  David  for  devotion,  and  Paul's  epistles 


540  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

for  doctrine,  seem  to  comprise  all  other  scriptures  on 
these  points.  The  learned  Salmasius,  on  his  death-bed, 
said,  "  Had  I  but  one  year  more  to  live,  I  would  spend  it 
in  reading  David's  psalms  and  St.  Paul's  epistles."  "  I 
have  seen  an  end  of  all  perfection,"  said  David ;  "  but 
thy  commandment,  O  God,  is  exceeding  broad."  Per- 
haps these  words  comprehend  more  than  commentators 
usually  ascribe  to  them.  David  may  have  known  all 
that  was  true  and  good  in  other  systems  of  religion,  but 
found  that  the  commandment  or  word  of  God  was  ex- 
ceeding broad,  extending  and  spreading  far  beyond  all  of 
them.  Other  systems  cover  only  a  few  corners  of  the 
field  of  revelation,  this  occupies  the  whole  area. 

Let  us  hear  the  testimonies  of  some,  who,  though  unin- 
spired among  Christians,  come  as  near  as  practicable  to 
the  plan  of  our  book.  The  learned  Selden  was  a  great 
scholar  and  reader,  and  had  the  largest  library,  perhaps, 
in  his  day.  In  a  conference  with  Archbishop  Usher,  just 
before  his  death,  he  said,  that  "notwithstanding  he- had 
possessed  himself  of  such  a  vast  treasure  of  books  and 
manuscripts  on  all  ancient  subjects,  yet  he  could  rest  his 
soul  on  none  but  the  scriptures."  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  in  a 
letter  to  one  of  his  sons,  thus  testifies :  "  I  have  been  ac- 
quainted somewhat  with  men  and  books  ;  I  have  had  long 
experience  in  learning  and  in  the  world ;  there  is  no  book 
like  the  Bible  for  excellent  learning,  wisdom,  and  use ; 
and  it  is  want  of  understanding  in  them  who  think  or 
speak  otherwise."  The  king  of  Sicily  once  said  to  the 
celebrated  Petrarch,  "  I  tell  thee,  my  Petrarch,  these 
holy  letters  are  dearer  to  me  than  my  kingdom,  and  were 
I  under  necessity  of  quitting  one  of  them,  it  should  be 
my  diadem."    To  these  I  only  add  the  motto  of  this  book. 

The  learned  John  Locke,  on  his  death-bed,  after  spend- 
ing twenty  years  chiefly  in  the  examination  of  the  sacred 
writings,  said  to  a  young  friend  at  his  bedside,  '•  Study 


SUPERIORITY   OF  THE   BIBLE.  541 

these  books ;  tliey  have  God  for  their  author,  salvation 
for  their  end,  and  truth,  without  any  mixture  of  error,  for 
their  matter." 

The  power  of  divine  truth  is  strikingly  set  forth  in  the 
historical  fact,  that  it  did  more  to  wean  the  Jews  from 
idolatry  than  all  the  miracles  and  judgments  of  God  in 
their  behalf ;  thus  explaining  and  fulfilling  the  words  of 
our  Lord,  "  They  have  Moses  and  the  prophets  ;  if  they 
believe  not  these,  neither  would  they  believe  though  one 
rose  from  the  dead." 

After  the  Jews,  by  the  decree  of  Cyrus,  had  returned 
to  their  land,  and,  by  the  favor  of  Darius,  the  temple  had 
been  rebuilt,  the  worship  restored,  and  the  Sacred  Scriptures 
multiplied  throughout  the  land  and  expounded  from  the 
pulpit,  in  the  time  of  Ezra  and  Neheniiah,  the  people  re- 
turned no  more  to  idolatry.  What  all  their  previous  and 
long  captivities  and  heavy  judgments  had  failed  to  do, 
was  now  effected  by  the  Sacred  Scriptures ;  and  though 
the  heavens  do  declare  the  glory  of  God  and  tlie  firma- 
ment showeth  his  handywork,  and  philosophers  had  been 
pointing  to  these,  and  all  nature  had  been  teaching  God 
for  four  thousand  years,  yet  one  has  well  asked,  "  How 
much  did  men  learn  ? "  and  truly  answered,  "  Xot  as  much 
as  a  mother  teaches  her  child  out  of  the  Bible  in  half  an 
hour;"  adding,  "the  Bible  must  teach  us  the  God  who  is 
in  nature  before  we  can  find  him  there.  To  the  heathen 
every  thing  was  god  but  God  himself"*  Pantheism  has 
ever  been  the  most  universal  religion  ;  Mohammedanism 
comes  nearest  to  it,  and  has  done  some  good  by  rooting 

*  See  an  interesting  discourse  by  the  Rer.  C.  P.  Krauth,  of  Philadelpliia,  en- 
titled "The  Bible  a  Perfect  Book."  See  also  the  excellent  things  said  in  the 
volumes  of  Taj'ler  Lewis,  in  praise  of  the  Bible,  especially  as  to  the  religious 
names  of  scripture.  Mr.  Lewis,  in  his  work  "  The  Divine  Human  in  Scrip- 
ture," praises  the  Bible  as  being  "  the  most  translatable  of  all  books."  What 
book  has  ever  been  translated  into  so  many  languages?  What  book  would 
bear  it  ?    What  an  advantage  this  over  all  other  books  ! 


642  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

or  driving  out  some  that  were  worse.  "  It  was  a  mon- 
strous plagiarism  from  the  Bible  ;  it  was  great  only  like 
Prometheus,  in  the  fire  which  it  had  stolen.""'^ 

Let  us  proceed  to  a  comparison,  in  some  few  particulars, 
of  this  with  other  books.  Let  us  compare  the  great  his- 
torian of  the  Pentateuch  with  all  others.  How  free  he  is 
from  all  boasting  as  to  himself  or  his  countrymen  !  He 
candidly  tells  his  own  faults  and  shortcomings,  and  God's 
judgments  on  him  for  them.  Instead  of  flattering  his 
nation,  he  records  their  shameless  conduct  and  God's  ter- 
rible inflictions  upon  them.  It  was  not  for  their  number 
or  their  goodness  that  God  loved  them,  he  said.  He  loved 
them  because  he  loved  them,  and  intended  some  mighty 
work  by  them.  Compare  this  with  the  boasting  and  ex- 
travagant histories  of  Herodotus  and  others. 

THE   PKOPHETIC   BOOKS    OF   SCKIPTUKE. 

While  the  gift  of  prophecy  to  some  men,  and  a  class  of 
men  called  prophets,  are  recognized  in  every  pagan  system, 
showing  the  universal  consent  of  mankind  in  their  favor, 
what  other  book  in  the  world  has  ventured  on  a  long 


*  The  identity  of  the  language  of  the  Bible  in  some  of  its  most  important 
theological  terms,  with  those  used  in  the  Oriental  systems  of  philosophy  and 
religion,  deserves  to  be  noticed.  The  true  meaning  and  design  of  many  pas- 
sages of  scripture  cannot  be  properlj^  understood  and  felt,  except  as  containing 
allusions  to  the  language  and  doctrines  of  the  Gnostics  of  the  East.  The  terms 
light  and  darkness,  the  Word  or  Logos,  the  new  birth  or  regeneration,  the  be- 
ing in  Christ  or  in  God,  all  have  reference  to  the  same  phrases  in  the  Eastern 
systems.  In  these  systems  they  are  connected  with  error;  in  the  Christian 
system  with  truth.  Christ  is  "  the  true  Light."  The  new  birth  in  Christ  is  by 
the  power  of  the  Spirit,  not  by  the  mysteries  or  the  sacrifices.  It  was  meet 
that  the  language  of  the  Bible  should  be  so  far  accommodated  to  the  language 
of  mythology  and  philosophy,  as  that  each  should  cast  some  light  on  the  other ; 
else  would  the  scriptures  be  an  unknown  tongue  to  the  heathen,  and  be  unfit 
for  their  conversion.  Whoever  will  I'cad  the  scriptures  and  these  ancient  writ- 
ings, comparing  them  together,  will  be  surprised  and  pleased  at  finding  so 
many  terms  and  figures  and  illustrations  in  common,  affording  mutual  help  to 
the  right  understanding  of  both  parties. 


SUPERIORITY   OF  THE   BIBLE.  543 

series  of  prophecies  like  that  which,  beginning  with 
Noah,  continues  to  St.  Jolm,  a  period  of  more  than  two 
thousand  years,  predicting  events  to  occur,  some  of  them 
in  a  comparatively  short  time,  and  others  at  a  very  long 
distance  in  the  future  ?  What  other  books  ventured  to 
rest  their  truth  and  authority  on  the  destruction  of  proud 
cities  and  the  downfall  of  mighty  kingdoms,  and  the  dis- 
persion of  such  a  nation  through  the  earth,  even  to  this 
day,  as  the  Jewish  people  ?  Where  were  there  ever,  ex- 
cept in  Judea,  such  men  as  Moses,  Daniel,  Isaiah,  who 
dared  to  stand  up  before  the  world  and  predict  the  dis- 
grace and  desolation  of  Babylon,  Nineveh,  Jerusalem, 
and  the  passing  away  of  the  greatest  monarchies  of 
earth  ?  Where  is  to  be  heard  of  such  a  prophet  as  St. 
John,  who,  in  the  Apocalyptic  vision,  looking  through  the 
long  vista  of  ages  to  come,  predicts  events  even  to  the 
end  of  the  world,  many  of  which  have  already  occurred  ? 

THE   DEVOTIONAL    SCRIPTURES. 

Let  the  brief  prayer  taught  by  our  Lord  to  his  disciples, 
for  their  use  and  for  that  of  his  whole  church,  in  all  ages, 
be  compared  with  all  the  prayers  ever  composed  and  used 
by  philosophers  and  priests  of  the  pagan  world.  ISTay, 
let  the  devotional  psalms  and  hymns  of  Moses,  David, 
and  others,  by  which  we  make  melody  in  our  hearts  to 
the  Lord,  be  compared  with  the  bombastic  and  ridiculous 
addresses  of  Homer,  Ilesiod,  and  Callimachus,  to  Jupiter 
Apollo,  Bacchus,  Yenus,  Diana,  and  others,  and  we  shall 
have  some  idea  of  the  infinite  superiority  of  this  depart- 
ment of  the  Bible. 

COMPARATIVE   VIEW   OF   DOCTRINE. 

What  are  all  the  fanciful  systems  of  the  Zendavesta, 
the  Yedas,  the  Puranas  of  the  East,  and  of  the  philoso- 


54:4  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE    CLASSICS. 

phers  of  Greece  and  Rome,  compared  with  that  set  forth 
in  the  discourses  of  our  Lord  and  the  epistles  of  his  apos- 
tles ?  Our  Lord's  sermon  on  the  mount  has  more  of  true 
divinity  and  morality  than  could  be  extracted  by  the  most 
sifting  process  from  all  the  sacred  books  of  the  whole 
world  beside. 

TUB   ORDINANCES   OF   KELIGION. 

How  shall  we  compare  together  the  simple  ordinance 
of  baptism,  in  which  parents  and  minister  bring  the  little 
children  to  Christ,  and  with  the  sprinkling  of  pure  water 
on  their  foreheads,  place  them,  by  faith,  in  his  arms,  en- 
couraged by  his  own  act  while  on  earth,  with  the  horrid 
dedication  of  children  to  Moloch  by  the  j)riests  and  pa- 
rents, who  threw  them  into  his  burning  arms  and  heard 
their  piercing  shrieks,  and  knew  not  but  their  souls  were 
cast  into  a  burning  lake  in  Tartarus?  How  shall  we 
compare  the  simple  and  expressive  sacrament  of  the  body 
and  blood  of  Christ,  where  a  little  bread  and  wine  are 
used  as  signs,  with  the  bloody  sacrifices  of  the  heathen, 
where  the  priest  and  the  oflerer  bathe  their  hands  and 
arms  and  faces  in  the  blood  of  the  innocent  victims,  and 
thus  approach  the  altar  of  their  gods,  presenting  some- 
times tlie  fruit  of  tlieir  bodies, — their  own  children, — for 
the  sin  of  their  souls  ?  How  different  the  religion  of  David, 
who  said,  "  I  will  wash  my  hands  in  innocency,  and  so 
will  I  come  to  thine  altar,  O  Lord."  Who  would  com- 
pare with  either  of  these  celebrations,  done  in  open  day, 
and  understood  by  all,  the  dark  mysteries  of  the  pagans, 
in  deep  forests  or  subterranean  abodes,  where  the  initiated 
were  frightened  with  the  most  horrid  rites  and  dismal 
groans,  before  being  admitted  to  any  thing  that  was  cheer- 
ing and  hopeful  ?  * 

*  St.  Paul,  in  more  than  one  place,  speaks  of  some  "  things  done  of  them  in 
secret,"  of  which  it  is  a  shame  even  to  speak.     It  is  supposed  that  he  alludes 


SUPERIORITY  OF  THE   BIBLE.  545 


THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE   TWO    SYSTEMS. 

When  the  great  author  of  all  the  idolatries  of  the  world 
addressed  his  too  successful  temptation  to  our  first  ]3arents, 
he  said,  "  Ye  shall  be  as  gods"  if  ye  only  take  my  coun- 
sel and  eat  of  this  tree.  Himself  had  fallen  by  the  same 
temptation.  Ambition  was  the  ruling  principle  of  the 
heathen  world.  The  gods  (so  called)  set  them  the  ex- 
ample, and  were  ever  contending  with  each  other  for 
power.  Even  Homer,  whose  great  poem  is  so  well  calcu-  • 
lated  to  stir  up  this  principle  in  men,  must  needs  rebuke 
the  gods  for  its  mischievous  indulgence : 

"  Ye  gods,  what  havoc  does  ambition  make 
'Mong  all  your  works  !  " 

How  different  the  spirit  and  conduct  of  our  Lord,  who 
said,  "  Learn  of  me,  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart" — ■ 
who  chose  the  form  of  a  servant,  calling  himself  "  the 
servant  of  servants,"  whose  great  prototype,  Moses,  "  was 
meek  above  all  men  upon  earth,"  though  none  more  val- 
iant for  Grod  and  the  truth.  When  our  Lord  came,  he 
took  little  children  into  his  arms,  saying,  "  of  such  is  the 
kingdom  of  heaven ; "  instead  of  encouraging  ambition, 
and  saying  "  Ye  shall  be  as  gods,"  he  declared  that  only 
those  who  became  as  little  children  should  enter  the  king- 

to  some  things  in  the  celebration  of  the  mysteries,  probably  at  a  later  period, 
when  they  had  become  corrupted.  Many  such  things  there  were,  in  which 
even  females  participated,  and  which  formed  a  part  of  their  philosophic  sj'stem, 
with  which  I  could  not  stain  these  pages.  The  use  of  the  holy  things  in  the 
worship  of  some  of  the  deities  well  deserves  to  be  called  "  abominable  idola- 
tries." Even  as  to  the  good  which  was  taught  in  the  mysteries,  one  says,  "  If 
the  doctrine  of  the  unity  was  taught  in  the  mysteries,  it  was  under  a  tremen- 
dous seal  and  oath  of  secrecy."  It  is  even  affirmed  that,  in  some  of  them, 
certain  persons  employed  in  menial  offices  about  the  celebrations  have  been 
put  to  death  after  the  celebrations  were  over,  lest  they  should  divulge  the 
secrets. 

35 


546  THE    BIBLE   AND  THE   CLASSICS, 

dom  of  heaven.  See  how  he  rebuked  every  symptom  of 
ambition  which  showed  itself  among  his  disciples,  whether 
for  earthly  or  heavenly  superiority,  saying,  that  those 
who  would  be  greatest  must  become  least, — that  is,  in 
spirit  and  temper.  The  poor  in  spirit,  and  the  meek, 
were  his  favorites,  and  the  blessed  ones  here  and  here- 
after. Hvimility,  which  has  no  word  answering  to  it  in 
the  proud  Roman  tongue,  was  the  grace  in  which  he  de- 
lighted, and  which  he  exhibited  in  his  whole  life  and 
character.  How  different  the  language  of  scripture  from 
that  of  man,  as  to  pride  !  We  often  read  of  a  noble  pride, 
even  now.  In  the  time  of  the  prophets,  one  said,  "  Be- 
hold, we  call  the  proud  happy,"  but  he  rebukes  it,  saying, 
"  The  proud,  God  knoweth  afar  off."  There  was  a  noted 
saying  among  the  ancients,  that  "  the  noblest  sight  upon 
earth  was  that  of  a  good  man  struggling  with  adversity, 
but  unsubdued  by  it.  On  such  a  sight,  even  the  gods 
looked  down  with  admiration."  But  what  saith  the 
scripture  :  "  To  this  man  will  I  look,  even  to  him  that  is 
poor  and  of  a  contrite  spirit."  "  The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a 
broken  spirit."  With  such  sacrifices  God  himself  is  well 
pleased.  The  object  over  which  angels  are  said  to  re- 
joice is  tlie  repenting  sinner.  As  to  innocence  and  in- 
tegrity, of  whicli  men  boast  so  much,  one  in  Rome  said  of 
the  honest  Fabricius.  "  Sooner  shall  the  sun  be  turned 
from  its  course,  than  thee,  Fabricius,  from  the  paths  of 
honor."  The  scripture  says  of  even  the  just  man,  that  "  he 
falleth  seven  times  a  day,  but  riseth  again."  The  scrip- 
ture says,  "  God  chargeth  even  his  angels  with  folly." 
Epictetus  said,  "As  to  the  body,  thou  art  a  small  part  of 
the  universe  ;  but  in  respect  of  the  mind  or  reason,  neither 
more  nor  less  than  the  gods.  Will  you  not,  tlierefore, 
place  your  good  there,  where  you  are  equal  to  the  gods  ? " 
Instead  of  these  proud  imaginations,  we  should  always 
conceive  of  heaven  as  a  place,  not  for  warriors  and  mighty 


SUPERIORITY   OF  THE   BIBLE.  547 

men  and  proud  spirits,  who  miglit  again  rebel  and  war, 
but  for  luimble  spirits  which  liave  been  chastened  and 
subdued,  and  conlirmed  in  meekness. 


DIFFERENCE   OF   THE   SYSTEMS    AS   TO    REVENGE   AND   FOR- 
GIVENESS   or   INJURIES. 

In  nothing  does  paganism  and  Christianity  more  differ 
than  in  this.  Milton  has  described  the  former  in  two 
words,  "  Lust  hard  by  hate."  Revenge  was  and  is  the 
deepest  and  w^orst  feeling  in  the  human  heart.  Christi- 
anity sets  itself  entirely  against  it.  We  are  not  permitted 
even  to  ask  forgiveness  of  God,  except  on  the  condition  of 
forgiving  others.  We  must  love,  not  only  our  friends,  but 
our  enemies ;  do  good  to  them  who  seek  to  do  evil  unto 
us ;  overcome  evil  with  good  ;  forgive,  not  seven  times 
only,  but  seventy  times  seven, — that  is,  as  often  as  it  is 
asked.  Some  have  thought  that  the  imprecatory  Psalms 
of  David  are  inconsistent  with  this  feature  of  our  religion, 
and  say  we  should  hate  the  sin  and  love  the  sinner ;  to 
which  it  is  replied,  "  that  when  sin  and  the  sinner  are 
finally  committed  to  each  other,  both  God  and  man  must 
root  them  out  together ;  that  man  does  not  hang  murder, 
but  the  murderers ;  that  God  does  not  turn  wickedness, 
but  the  wicked  into  hell.*  In  the  Psalms  we  have  an 
account  of  God's  fearful  punishment  of  idolatry,  as  the 
worst  of  crimes — the  highest  rebellion  against  himself. 

If  we  turn  to  the  pagans  we  may  indeed  find  here  and 
there  some  good  sayings  on  this  subject,  but  intermingled 
with  those  of  a  difierent  character.  In  Homer  we  find 
the  pious  old  Hecuba  thirsting  to  wash  her  hands  in  the 
blood  of  Achilles. 

*  See  the  Kev.  Mr.  Krauth's  sermon. 


548  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

Hesiod  says, 

"  Who  loves  thee,  love  :  him  vroo,  who  friendly  woos  ;" — 

but,  even  as  to  a  brother, 

"  If  he,  the  first,  by  word  or  deed  offend, 
Doubly  thy  just  resentment  may  descend." 

Let  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  the  Second  Epistle  of  St. 
Paul  to  the  Corinthians,  on  charity,  be  read,  and  in  it  will 
be  found  more  and  better  on  this  subject  than  is  contained 
in  all  the  books  of  the  pagans. 


COMPAKATIVE   VIEW   OF   THE    SCEIPTUEE,    ON   THE    SUBJECT   OF 
TEMPERANCE,    WITH   THAT    OF   OTHERS. 

St.  Paul  advises  a  little  wine  to  Timothy  for  his  often 
infirmities,  and  the  scriptures  are  full  of  warning  against 
excess,  and  regard  it  as  sometimes  expedient  neither  to 
touch,  taste,  or  handle  it.  They  condemn  the  doctrine  of 
Epicurus,  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die." 
Among  the  Egyptians,  from  whom  this  motto  of  Epicurus 
was  borrowed,  there  was  a  custom,  at  their  entertainments, 
to  have  carried  about  the  image  of  a  corpse  in  a  coffin, 
with  some  words  to  this  effect :  "  Enjoy  yourselves  now, 
for  you  will  soon  be  as  this  corpse."  Among  the  ancients 
there  were  prizes  for  those  who  could  drink  most.  Alex- 
ander the  Great  was  celebrated  for  his  ability,  but  died  a 
victim  to  it  at  last.  Theognis  the  poet,  being  at  a  feast, 
thus  describes  his  condition  and  opinion : 

"  I  shall  retire,  (the  rule,  I  think,  is  right,) 
Not  absolutely  drunk,  nor  sober  quite." 

Horace  speaks  of  various  poets  who  excelled  by  reason 
of  the  inspiration  of  wine,  as  Homer,  Ennius,  etc. 

Even  Plato  allowed  drunkenness  on  a  feast  of  Bacchus. 


SUPERIORITY   OF   THE   BIBLE.  549 

Solomon,  on  the  contrary,  advises — "When  thou  sittest  at 
a  feast  with  a  ruler,  put  thy  knife  to  thy  throat,  if  thou  be 
a  man  given  to  appetite  ;"  and  St.  Paul  felt  that  even  he 
"  must  keep  under  his  body." 

Christianity  teaches  that  "  every  creature  of  God  is 
good,  and  to  be  used  with  thanksgiving"  and  in  modera- 
tion. It  is  entirely  opposed  to  the  religion  of  penances, 
as  substituted  for  that  of  faith,  love,  and  good  works. 
"  We  are  no  Brahmins,  (said  Tertullian,)  dwellers  in  the 
woods,  estranged  from  the  affairs  of  life.  We  are  temper- 
ate, and  learn  to  use  without  abusing." 


DIFFERENCE    BETWEEN    THE    EFFECTS    OF     THE    TWO    SYSTEMS 
IN    THE    TIME   OF    TROUBLE  AND   DISAPPOINTMENT. 

When  Job  was  bereaved  of  all  his  possessions,  he  said, 
"  The  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away ; "  but  his 
wife  wished  him  to  curse  God,  and  die.  Here  was  the 
difference,  even  in  that  day,  between  the  servants  of  the 
true  God  and  others.  We  have  also  instances,  in  Homer, 
Virgil,  and  others,  of  blasphemy  toward  their  gods.  He- 
rodotus tells  us  of  a  nation,  the  Gaeta,  who,  when  it  thun- 
dered and  lightened,  would  shoot  their  arrows  against  the 
sky,  and  utter  threats  against  their  god.  As  to  the  phi- 
losophers, when  trouble  came  too  heavily  upon  them  they 
committed  suicide.  Thus  did  Brutus  at  Philippi.  Thus 
the  jailer  would  have  done  at  the  same  place,  had  not 
Paul  cried  out  to  him,  "  Do  thyself  no  harm,"  and  preached 
to  him  the  gospel  of  salvation.  I  might  extend  this  com- 
parison to  many  other  things,  as  for  instance,  to  the  moral 
law,  as  set  forth  under  Moses  and  explained  by  our  Lord, 
and  to  the  estimate  of  woman  among  the  heathen  and 
among  Christians ;  but  I  content  myself  with  a  brief  refer- 
ence to  the  different  effects  of  Christianity  and  paganism 


650  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

on  the  mind  of  man,  in  the  hour  of  death  and  in  view  of 
eternity.* 

St.  Paul  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  speaking  gener- 
ally, represents  men  as  "  through  fear  of  death  being,  all 
their  lifetime,  subject  to  bondage."  From  this,  Christ 
came  to  deliver  us.  However  boastfully  some  men  may 
speak,  death  has  ever  been  the  "king  of  terrors."  There 
is  a  "  bitterness  in  death."  The  remembrance  of  it  is 
bitter  to  him  who  is  unprepared.  And  to  all  men  it  is  a 
solemn  thing  to  die,  for  deatli  is  the  wages  of  sin,  appoint- 
ed and  required  by  God  himself.  To  the  unbelieving 
heathen  it  must  have  ever  been  a  bitter  draft.  Cicero 
says  of  Epicurus,  "  ISTever  was  a  school-boy  more  afraid 
of  a  rod,  or  an  enemy  of  his  conqueror,  than  he  was  of 
death,"  Well  might  they  shudder  on  the  brink  of  eter- 
nity when  making  the  fearful  leap,  not  knowing  where  they 
would  land  ;  whether  they  would  find  themselves  in  the 
body  of  another  man,  or  of  a  toad,  or  an  elephant,  or  in 
Hades,  or  in  which  part  of  Hades,  wdiether  Elvsium  or 
Tartarus,  or  wandering  around  it,  wretched  ghosts  be- 
cause their  bodies  were  unburied,  or  be  annihilated  or 
lost  in  the  deity,  "  Incertus  morior" — I  die  uncertain 
what  is  to  become  of  me,  was  the  highest  consolation  of 
the  pagan. 

How  different  the  case  of  the  true  Christian  :  to  die  is 
gain  to  him,  for  it  is  to  be  with  Christ,  Instead  of  wan- 
dering about  for  thousands  of  years,  an  empty,  wretched 

*  Dean  Trench  says — "Before  Christ,  men  could  speak  worthy  things  and 
really  feel  them,  about  the  beauty  of  overcoming  their  desires  and  forgiving 
their  enemies,  of  repaying  injuries  with  kindness,  of  coming  to  God  with  clean 
hands  and  a  clean  heart.  Such  sayings  abound  in  their  code  of  morals  ;  but  the 
unhappiness  was,  that  they  who  uttered  tliese  sayings  and  they  who  admired 
them,  did  little  more  than  this.  There  was  a  great  gulf  between  the  saying 
and  the  doing.  It  was  reserved  for  the  Christian  to  say,  "  Non  eloquimur  mag- 
na, sed  vivimus."  By  mistake,  in  the  early  ages,  the  disciples  of  Christ  were 
sometimes  called  "  Christians,"  that  is,  doers  of  good,  so  active  were  they  in 
all  good  works. 


SUPERIORITY   OF   THE   BIBLE.  551 

shade,  lie  shall  be,  on  the  very  day  of  his  death,  with 
Christ  in  Paradise,  in  a  state  of  blessedness.  His  life  is 
already  hid  with  Christ  in  God.  Precious  indeed  in  the 
sight  of  the  Lord  is  the  death  of  his  saints.  Blessed  are 
the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord.  The  Christian  alone  can 
say,  "O  death,  where  is  thy  sting!  O  grave,  where  is  thy 
victory !  Thanks  be  to  God,  who  giveth  ns  the  victory 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  Only  compare  together 
the  death  of  Socrates,  declaring  to  his  mourning  friends 
that  he  was  going,  he  knew  not  whither,  and  whether  it 
would  be  better  or  worse  with  him  the  gods  only  could 
tell ;  or  the  last  moments  of  the  infidel  Hume,  playing 
cards  wath  his  friends,  and  jesting  about  Charon  and  his 
ferryboat, — with  the  dying  testimony  of  St.  Paul  in  refer- 
ence to  his  martyrdom :  "  I  am  now  ready  to  be  offered, 
and  the  time  of  my  departure  is  at  hand.  I  have  fought 
a  good  tight ;  I  have  finished  my  course ;  I  have  kej^t  the 
faith  ;  henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of  right- 
eousness, which  the  Lord,  the  righteous  judge,  shall  give 
me  at  that  day,  and  not  to  me  only,  but  unto  all  them 
also  who  wait  his  appearing."  Li  relation  to  all  the  seem- 
ing confidence  of  irreligious  death-beds,  we  may  say,  in 
the  words  of  Dr.  Youna:  in  his  "  Niarht  Thous^hts  :" 

*'  Whatever  farce  the  boastful  hero  plays, 
Virtue  alone  has  majesty  in  death." 

But  by  virtue  we  must  understand  the  true  love  of  God, 
and  thus  did  he  mean  it. 

"  Talk  they  of  morals  ?     O  thou  bleeding  Love, 
Thou  maker  of  new  morals  to  mankind, 
Tlie  grand  morality  is  love  of  thee. 
As  wise  as  Socrates,  if  such  they  were  ; 
(Nor  will  they  bate  of  that  sublime  renown,) 
As  wise  as  Socrates,  might  justly  stand 
The  definition  of  a  modern  fooL" 


CHAPTEK    XL. 

CONCLUDING     EEMAEKS. 

A  BOOK,  like  a  sermon,  should  conclude  with  an  applica- 
tion. I  trust  that  what  has  been  adduced  in  proof  of  a 
universal  admission  of  some  great  principles  and  facts  in 
religion,  coming  down  to  us  from  the  earliest  ages  through 
yarious  numerous  channels,  has  not  been  without  its  effect 
as  an  antidote  to  infidelity.  But  for  the  most  part  the 
contest  has  not  been  with  the  denial  of  any  God,  or  of  all 
religion,  but  with  the  corruptions  of  it.  One  of  the  an- 
cients says,  "  Deos  esse  nemo  negat,  quales  sint  varium- 
est."  Tiiere  is  a  principle  in  these  words  which  we  may 
apply  to  our  subject.  That  the  great  God  gave  man  relig- 
ion at  the  first  all  admit,  but  what  it  was  has  divided  the 
world.  The  learned  Cudworth  says,  "  The  pagans  agreed 
in  two  things  ;  first,  in  breaking  and  crumbling  the  Deity 
into  many  gods;  second,  in  deifying  all  things."  Hence  all 
the  corruptions  of  original  truth.  Against  these  corrup- 
tions, which  of  necessity  must  have  been  by  little  and  little, 
God  has  doubtless,  by  his  spirit  and  prophets,  been  ever 
protesting,  before  and  since  the  flood.  Without  undertak- 
ino"  to  determine  what  he  has  done  in  otiier  countries,  in 
the  earlier  ages,  w^e  have  a  most  clear  and  particular  ac- 
count of  his  dealings  witli  a  chosen  people.  The  sum- 
ming up  the  history  of  these  dealings  as  a  warning  against 
any  perversion  of  religion  on  our  part,  will  form  the  appli- 
cation of  our  subject.     The  Bible  throughout  "  is  full  of 


CONCLUDING  EE  MARKS.  553 

warnings  against  tilings  which  to  some  appear  trivial.  St. 
John  says,  "  Little  children,  keep  yourselves  from  idols," — 
that  is,  images  of  the  no-gods  of  the  heathen,  which  filled 
their  houses  and  temples.  God  himself  had,  from  Mount 
Sinai,  said,  "Thou  shalt  not  make  to  thyself  any  graven 
image,  or  any  likeness  of  anything  that  is  in  heaven  above, 
or  that  is  in  the  earth  beneath,  or  that  is  in  the  water  un- 
der the  earth.  Thou  shalt  not  bow  down  to  them,  nor 
serve  them."  All  such  idols  or  images  abounded  in  that 
day,  and  increased  afterward.  If  they  were  not  worship- 
ped as  gods  theniselves,  yet  the  gods  were  supposed  to 
be  in  them  or  with  them.  If  the  doctrine  of  transubstan- 
tiation  was  not  held  in  relation  to  them,  that  of  consub- 
stantiation  certainly  was,  and  we  are  assured  by  various 
ancient  writers  that  the  worship  paid  to  them  was  as  to 
gods  themselves.  In  order  to  extirpate  this  superstition, 
God  not  only  forbids  the  making  of  them,  but  orders  those 
who  made  them  to  be  put  to  death.  The  whole  history  of 
God's  dealings  with  the  Jewish  nation  is  one  of  heavy 
judgments  on  those  who  gave  any  countenance  to  such 
things.  Many  of  the  special  statutes  for  Israel,  such  as 
forbidding  mixed  garments,  sowing  divers  seeds,  etc.,  in 
which  no  morality  is  concerned,  can  only  be  understood 
as  designed  to  keep  the  chosen  people  as  far  as  possible 
from  any  practices  which  might  familiarize  and  identify 
them  with  idolatrous  nations  and  customs.  Evil  commu- 
nications corrupt  good  mannei's,  and  he  that  despiseth  lit- 
tle things  shall  fall  by  little  and  little,  were  as  true  of  the 
corruptions  of  religion  as  of  anything  else, 

"  HsQ  nugso  soepe  in  seria  ducunt" — 

"  These  trifles  oft  to  serious  matters  lead" — 

is  the  history  of  the  rise  and  progress  of  idolatry  in  all  its 
forms.   One  of  the  defenders  of  the  Keformation  (Calfhill) 


554  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

says,  "  Siicli  is  the  vilest  persuasion  of  error,  such  is  the 
force  of  superstition,  that  whenever  occasion  is  ministered, 
our  corrupt  nature  inclineth  to  it."  The  tendency  to  the  nn- 
due  veneration  of  men, — our  ancestors  especially, — was  the 
source  of  image  or  idol  worship,  and  with  these  images 
those  ancestors  were  soon  identified.  Mr.  Harcourt,  in  his 
learned  work  on  the  Deluge,  says  the  laws  of  Menu  recog- 
nized eight  guardian  deities  of  the  world.  "And  that  these 
were  in  truth  the  ark-preserved  family  is  evident  enough, 
both  because  two  of  their  names,  Soma  and  Zoma,  are  with 
very  little  variation  the  same  as  Shem  and  Ham,  whose 
posterity  peopled  Asia,  and  because  one  of  the  duties  of 
their  religion,  described  by  a  Brahmin,  is  the  pouring  out 
drink-offerings  every  day  to  the  eight  progenitors  of  man- 
kind. These  eight  progenitors  w^ere  also  the  earliest  gods 
of  the  Egyptians."  That  such  is  the  tendency  of  human 
nature,  not  only  the  Jewish  and  other  ancient  nations  tes- 
tify, but  the  history  of  the  Christian  church  too  fully 
proves.  Even  in  the  apostle's  days  it  was  difficult  to  keep 
hero-worship — the  doctrine  of  devils — out  of  the  church  ; 
and  how  soon  after  do  we  find  it  showing  itself  in  the  an- 
niversaries of  the  saints,  after  the  manner  of  the  pagans. 
What  but  this  is  the  great  corruption  of  the  Romish 
church  ?  It  has  been  well  said,  that  "  If  the  Eomanists, 
under  the  full  blaze  of  Christianity,  can  pay  such  homage 
to  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  rely  so  much  on  the  saints,  making 
them  tutelary  deities,  actually  spending  more  time  on  them 
than  in  the  worship  of  God  the  Father,  is  it  to  be  wondered  at 
that  the  heathen  should  have  departed  from  the  worship  of 
the  true  God,  or  mingled  it  with  that  of  lesser  deities,  or 
that  the  Jews  should  have  mingled  the  worship  of  Jehovah 
with  that  of  the  hero-gods  ?"  The  homage  paid  to  shrines 
and  relics  grew  up  in  like  manner  among  pagans,  Jews, 
and  Christians.  It  has,  therefore,  ever  been  the  belief 
that  there  was  design  in  the  manner  and  place  of  Moses' 


CONCLUDING   REMARKS.  555 

death  and  burial.  It  is  written,  that  the  Lord  buried 
him  "  in  tlie  hand  of  Moab,  over  against  Beth-peor  :  but  no 
man  knoweth  of  his  sepulchre  unto  this  day."  Had  it  been 
known,  how  ])robable  that  some  improper  homage  would 
have  been  paid  to  it,  as  to  the  supposed  sepulchre  of  Jupi- 
ter in  Crete,  and  of  other  gods  in  other  places  !* 

*  A  very  interesting  work  has  recently  been  published  by  William  Buckhardt 
Barker,  (who  was  many  years  resident  at  Tarsus,  in  Asia,  as  an  officer  of  the 
British  Government,)  entitled  "Lares  and  Penates;  or,  Cilesia  and  its  Gov- 
ernors," in  which  the  reader  may  find  much  that  is  worthy  of  his  notice.  Tar- 
sus was  the  place  of  St.  Paul's  birth,  and  tradition  says,  of  Daniel's  burial.  It 
was,  on  many  accounts,  "  no  mean  city,"  whether  sacred  or  profane  history 
bears  testimonj'.  It  was,  at  first,  called  Tarshish,  a  name  belonging  to  other 
commercial  places  in  the  ancient  world.  It  was  situated  on  the  celebrated  river 
Cydnus,  in  which  Alexander,  when  bathing,  nearly  lost  his  life.  It  empties 
into  the  Mediterranean.  W^hile  resident  at  Tarsus,  Mr.  Barker  collected  a  large 
store  of  the  terra-cotta  images  of  the  ancient  deities, — the  household  and  coun- 
trj'  gods,  "  the  Lares  and  Penates," — paying  a  great  price  for  them  to  persons 
who  made  it  their  business  to  dig  them  from  the  ruins  of  the  city.  Discover- 
ing the  place  where  one  of  these  men  was  wont  to  get  them,  Mr.  Barker  em- 
ployed a  number  of  hands,  and  opened  a  mound  which  had  been  formed  of  the 
alluvial  soil  from  the  surrounding  hills,  against  the  tottering  walls  which  en- 
close the  city,  and  there  found  a  huge  pile  of  them,  some  in  fragments,  many 
entire.  More  than  a  thousand  of  them  are  now  in  the  British  Museum,  and  the 
pictures  adorn  his  book.  Mr.  Barker  gives  his  views  of  the  Lares  and  Penates, 
as  follows  :  "  Though  both  were  considered  as  household  gods,  the  Lares  were, 
more  exclusively,  being  derived,  according  to  Apulius,  from  lar-familiaris,— 
belonging  to  a  family.  They  were  sometimes  confounded  with  the  souls  of  de- 
ceased persons  who  had  lived  well.  Those  who  had  lived  badly  were  called 
Larvas,  or  Lemures,  and  were  regarded  as  vagabonds,  wandering  about  and 
frightening  people.  The  good  were  the  guardian  angels  of  families,  and  were 
represented  by  little  images  of  ware, — terra-cotta,  or  other  materials.  The  pe- 
natcs  were  also  household  gods,  and  these  were  called  the  lesser  penates.  They 
also  presided  over  cities,  and  some  over  empires,  having  the  special  guardian- 
ship of  their  favorites." 

Mr.  Bryant  derives  the  name  Lares  from  Laren,  an  ancient  word  by  which 
the  ark  was  represented,  and  says  that  the  Etrurians  and  Latins  held  them  to 
be  the  "  Dei  Arkitoc,"— that  is,  their  arkite  ancestors  who  became  their  house- 
bold  deities.  It  should  also  be  observed  that  the  pagans  would  select  any  of 
the  gods  or  goddesses  to  be  their  tutelary  deities,  whether  Jupiter,  Apollo,  or 
others.  No  doubt  these  household  deities  were  in  use  at  an  early  period,  and 
may  have  been  the  same  spiken  of  in  the  family  of  Jacob,  and  the  same  refer- 
red to  by  Moses,  where  tlie  setting  up  of  idols  in  the  secret  corners  of  the  house 
is  forbidden.  Cicero  derives  the  word  penates  from  penetralis,  the  inmost  recess 
of  the  house.    It  is  thought  that  this  huge  pile  of  images  without  the  walla  of 


556  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE    CLASSICS. 

At  the  time  of  tlie  Reformation,  the  subject  of  saint- 
worship  and  its  connection  with  the  idol  or  image-wor- 
ship of  the  heathen  was  fully  discussed.  In  the  book  of 
Homilies  of  the  English  church,  composed  by  Cranmer  and 
other  reformers,  there  are  three  sermons  on  the  peril  of 
idolatry,  in  which  the  ground  is  taken  that  all  pictures  and 
images  in  churches  are  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  second 
commandment,  that  eidolon  in  Greek,  imago  and  simula- 
crum in  latin,  are  to  be  translated  idols  or  images.  Ter- 
tullian  is  quoted  as  translating  St.  John's  words,  "  Beware 
of  idols,"  "beware  of  images."  Moses  is  quoted  as  em- 
phatically declaring  tiiat  the  people  at  Sinai  and  elsewhere 
"  Heard  only  the  voice  of  the  Lord,  but  saw  no  similitude 
■ — no  manner  of  similitude,"  and  therefore  warned  against 
any  image  or  any  thing  in  heaven,  or  eartli,  or  under  the 
earth,  saying,  "  Cursed  be  the  man  that  maketh  any  such 
image,  and  setteth  it  up  in  a  secret  corner,"  thus  forbid- 
ding even  the  private  use  of  it.  Origen  is  quoted  as  say- 
ing, "  It  is  not  only  a  mad  and  frantic  thing  to  worship 
images,  but  also  once  to  dissemble  or  wink  at  it." 
St.  Angu£tine  says,  "  Images  be  of  more  force  to  crook 
an  unhappy  soul,  than  to  teach  and  instruct."  The  case 
of  Epiphanius  is  mentioned,  who,  in  the  time  of  Tlieodo- 
sius,  entered  into  a  certain  temple  to  pray,  and  found 
there  a  linen  painted  cloth  on  the  door,  having  on  it  the 
image  of  Christ  or  of  some  other  saint.  Considering  it 
contrary  to  the  scriptures,  he  tore  it  down,  and  directed 
the  keeper  of  the  church  to  make  a  winding-sheet  of  it  for 
a  poor  man  who  was  dead,  and  to  bury  him  in  it, — order- 
ing that  no  more  like  it  be  used  in  the  church.  St.  Je- 
rome and  others  praised  him  highly  for  this  act. 

St.  Jerome  and  Eusebius  agree  that  the  introduction  of 

Tarsus,  may  have  been  the  result  of  the  zoal  of  the  converts  to  Christianity,  in 
one  of  the  visits  of  St.  Paul  to  this  place,  when  stirred  up  by  his  preaching,  which 
led  them  to  carry  their  idols  and  images,  and  cast  them  outside  the  city. 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS.  557 

the  nse  of  images  and  pictures  was  of  Gentile  converts, 
who  were  not  thoroughly  purged  of  some  remnants  of 
idolatry ;  that,  at  first,  they  were  not  used  in  churches, 
but  afterward  crept  into  them  out  of  private  houses,  and 
so  bred  first  superstition,  and  afterward  idolatry.  At 
length,  as  the  darker  ages  came  on,  images  and  pictures 
were  more  and  more  used,  though  some  godly  bishops  and 
rulers  would,  from  time  to  time,  cause  them  to  be  removed, 
and  also  from  private  houses.  The  homily  makes  a  dis- 
tinction between  these  and  the  pictures,  images,  and  stat- 
ues of  men  and  other  objects,  which  are  taken  and  used 
for  the  purpose  of  preserving  the  recollection  of  the  same, 
and  where  there  is  not  the  least  design  or  probability  of 
their  being  turned  into  superstition,  but  condemns  the 
introduction  even  of  them  into  temples  of  religion,  lest 
they  minister  to  undue  veneration,  and  thus  promote  idol- 
atry or  image  worship. 

The  reformers  felt  it  their  duty  also  to  protest  against 
the  superstitious  regard  paid  to  the  sign  of  the  cross.  One 
whole  volume,  octavo,  is  filled  with  an  account  of  its 
abuses  by  the  Romanists,  and  with  warnings  against  the 
same.  On  these  and  on  all  other  subjects  it  becomes  us 
to  beware  of  the  first  beginnings  of  error,  to  meet  them 
at  the  door,  in  their  first  stealthy  approaches.  Let  us  fear 
the  semi-paganism  of  Rome  and  the  semi-Romanism  of 
some  Protestants,  remembering  how  "  facilis  descensus 
Averni." 

To  conclude.  While  we  still  adhere  to  the  conviction  that 
the  warnings  against  idols,  by  St.  John,  St.  Paul,  and  oth- 
ers, are  to  be  literally  understood  as  warnings  against  any 
return  unto,  or  connivances  at,  some  of  the  forms  of  pa- 
ganism, we  are  far  from  restricting  those  and  other  pas- 
sages to  such  literal  application.  We  may  be,  to  the  ruin 
of  our  immortal  souls,  guilty  of  spiritual  idolatry  in  many 
other  ways.     Whatever  we  love  and  seek,  and  rely  upon 


558  THE   BIBLE   AND   THE   CLASSICS. 

more  than  on  God,  becomes  an  idol  or  god  to  ns.  Bj 
seeking  riches  immoderately,  we  worship  Mammon  ;  for 
covetousness  is  idolatry.  Those  who  addict  themselves  to 
lusts  and  pleasures,  are  the  sons  and  worshippers  of  Belial. 
Philosophers  who  passionately  devote  themselves  to  as- 
tronomy, neglecting  the  God  who  is  above  the  heavens, 
worship  the  heavenly  bodies.  The  blood  thirsty,  who  de- 
light in  war,  worship  Mars.  Those  who  give  themselves 
up  to  music,  without  making  melody  in  their  hearts  to 
the  Lord,  worship  Apollo.  Those  who  delight  themselves 
in  the  idle  poetry  of  human  genius,  more  than  in  the 
psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs  of  scripture,  wor- 
ship the  Muses.  Those  who  devote  themselves  to  the  su- 
perficial accomplishments  of  the  person  more  than  to  the 
solid  virtues  of  the  mind,  worship  the  Graces.  Those 
who  give  loose  to  the  angry  passions  of  the  soul,  worship 
the  Furies.  Those  whose  highest  aim  is  the  cultiva- 
tion and  attainment  of  eloquence,  worship  Mercury. 
Those  who  surrender  up  themselves  to  mere  human  love, 
worship  Yenus.  Those  who  are  ravished  with  their  own 
beauty,  as  Narcissus  in  the  lake,  worship  themselves. 
Those  who  value  and  pride  themselves  chiefly  on  their 
personal  strength,  worship  Hercules.  Those  who  aim  at 
empire,  worship  Jupiter.  Those  who  admire  all  the  ob- 
jects in  creation,  all  the  beasts  of  tlie  field  and  fowls  of  the 
air,  without  looking  through  nature  up  to  nature's  God, 
worship  Pan — are  pantheists.  To  these,  and  all  others 
who  in  their'  hearts  delight  in  any  of  the  things  of  this 
world  more  than  in  Him  who  made,  redeemed,  and  sanc- 
tifies man,  we  say,  "Little  children,  keep  yonrselves  from 
idols." 


KRRATA. 


I'AGfi. 

tINK. 

PAGK. 

LINK 

11    . 

.    14   . 

.   Horte  for  Hosa. 

445 

.    21 

130  . 

.   30  . 

.   Though  after  and. 

"     . 

.   23 

isy 

,   30  . 

.   War  for  roar. 

" 

.   23 

163 

.   14  . 

.   Above  for  upon. 

" 

.   27 

174 

.   2'J   . 

.   Known  for  human. 

45-2 

.   17 

171" 

.   21   . 

.   From  for  for. 

4.55 

.   13 

203 

.   10   . 

.   Then  for  here. 

490 

;     28 

275 

.   27   . 

.   Sixth  for  ninth. 

481 

.   14 

335 

.    12    . 

.   Copan  for  ccpar. 

" 

.    15 

840 

.   13   . 

.  Wear}'  for  very. 

482 

.     s 

855 

.      fl   . 

.   ,548  for  448. 

484 

.  17 

432 

.     3   . 

.   711  for  911. 

48G 

..     1 

435 

..   14  . 

.   Qua  for  qu;o. 

501 

.   30 

" 

.   24  . 

.  Rursus  for  nusus. 

532 

.    28 

" 

.   27   . 

.   Pignora  for  pignova. 

551 

. .   28 

>i 

.   30   . 

.   Vivo  for  viro. 

504 

..     1 

444 

. .   27   . 

.   Immemor  for  immenor. 

Verba  far  vetbam. 
JEre  for  ^Ee. 
Timebant  for  tinebant, 
Sine  for  sive. 
Decrant  for  devant. 
Land  for  laud. 
Vetituni  for  vebitum. 
Propositi  for  proposito. 
Civiuni  for  civirum. 
Compesce  for  compesse, 
Hie  for  hoc. 
Nubes  for  uubus. 
Mars  for  Moloch. 
And  after  Athenians- 
Lamb  for  love. 
Common  for  vilest. 


LIST     OF     BOOKS 

Published  by 

ROBERT     CARTER     &     BROTHERS, 

530  Broadway,  corner  of  Spring-st., 
NEW    YORK. 


A.  L.  O.  E.  Books. 

The  Ci.AKKMoNT  Tales, 
Tub  Adkitei)  Son. 

TlIK  YoiTNG    I'lUiKIM,    . 

The  Gi.vnt  Kii,i.Kit  anu  Skqitel, 
Flou.v  and  oTUKit  Talks,    . 
TiiK  Nkkdi.k  and  tiik  Uat, 
Kddih  Kllkkslie  and  tue  Mine, 

PllEOKITS  IN   rRACTirK, 

Idols  in  tiii:  Ukakt,   . 

CiIUISTIAN'S   MlliROlt,     . 

Pkide  and  ms  I'kisoners,  . 

The  Mine, 

Tin;  Giant  Killer, 

The  ItonY  Family, 

Old  Kriknds  with  New  Faces, 

Ka.mrles  ok  a  Kat, 

AVlNliS  AND  StINOS, 
WaLTKR  ISlNNING, 

True  IIrkoism,      .... 
The  SioitY  of  a  Needle,     , 
The  Two  Paths,  .... 

Absrcrombic's  Contest  and  Armottb 

Adams's   Three  Divine  Sisters,    . 

Alexander's  Counsels  to  the  Touno, 

Advice  to  a  Young  Christian, 

Alleine,  Rev.  Joseph. 

Gospel  Promises.     ISnio.   . 
Life  and  Letters  of  Alleine,  . 


1  T5 

75 


60 


Alexander,  Rev.  S.  D. 

Hist,  of  1'resbyter.  Churcu  in  Ireland,  1  00 

Anderson,  Rev.  Joseph. 

Bible  Lioht  from  Biulb  Lands,       .        .      75 

Anderson,  Christopher. 

The  .\nnals  of  the  En«li8ii  Bible,  . 
The  Family  Book.     I'iuio, . 

Anna ; 

Or,  A  Daughter  at  Home,  . 

Ashton  Cottage, 40 

Assembly's  Shorter  Catechism. 

(From  now  ty[)e),  o2mo.     Pit  buiidred,     .   1  25 

Assembly's  Shorter  Catechism. 

ISino.      With  Proofs.     Pur  liuudred,  .         .  3  00 

Aunt  Friendly. 

The  .If.wish'Twins 40 

The  Children  on  the  Plains,  ...      40 

Aunt  Edith  ; 

Or,  Love  to  God  the  Best  Motive,  .        .      60 
Australia.       Loss  of  the  Brio       ...      25 

Bacon,  Lord. 

Bible  Thoughts.    With  a  Sketch  of  his 
Life  by  tlie  Kev.  J.  G.  Hall.     12nio, . 


Baillie,  Rev.  John. 

Memoir  OF  .\i)i:i,aide  Leaper  Ni'.WTON,  .5  75 

Memoir  of  tiik  Hkv.  VV.  li.  llEuirsuN,  .  85 

Letters  and  IIemains  of  IIkwitsun,  .  2  OJ 

Life  Studies  ;  or.  How  to  Live,       .  .  40 

St.  Auoustine,  a  Biofri:i|ihio:il  Moiiiuir,  .  50 

Memoir  of  Captain  W.  T.  Bate,       .  .  5f) 

The  Missionary  of  Kilmanv,    ...  40 

Ballantyne's    Mabel  Grant         ...      50 

Baxter,  Richard. 

The  Reformed  Pastor.  Complete,  8vo, .  2  00 
Saint's  Best.  Complete.  Koy:;!  8vo,  .  'i  00 
Saint's  Best,  UMial  edition,  liimo,  .  .  00 
A  Call  to  the  Unconverted,     ISmo,      .      80 

Beveridge's  Private  Tuougiits.     2  vols.,   .  1  50 

Bible  Companion, " 40 

Bickersteth,  Rev.  Edward. 

A  Treatise  on  Prayer,  ....  40 
A  Treatise  on  the  Lord's  Supper,    .        .      30 

Bickersteth,  Edward  Henry,  A.M. 
Waters  from  the  Wkll-Spkino, 

Black  Ship,  The, 

And  other  Allegories.     Illustrated,    .        .      50 
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